Life is Precious
by feltbomb
Summary: Post-Hogwarts timeline  one year on after the war... Draco is a wreck and believes he should die... Can anyone help him?   Contains suicide and self-harm! Rated M to be safe!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N-** Well this is a Dramione story! I know there are probably those out there that are perhaps similar to mine but I hope that you shall enjoy and wait for future chapters to come up!

**Disclaimer- **I OWN HARRY POTTER! YES! Ahahah! Oh how I wish :') For now it's only mine in my dreams...

**Warning- **This story has some issues about suicide and self-harm and I do describe it in a bit of detail! So if you don't like that... Don't read this.

_**Chapter 1**_

With a sigh, Draco looked out towards the hills, realising how peaceful life had become since Harry had killed Voldemort that faithful day. Of course the world was peaceful, but for Draco, his had just gotten worst since that faithful day. After the death of the Dark Lord, his father had been sent to Azkaban for his crimes and support of Voldemort. Narcissa and Draco had been able to avoid the same fate, but not without wounds. Whenever their name was said, people would look at them in disgust, some would even throw hexes at them and others would throw food. Draco couldn"t escape it, not that he even wanted to. He deserved all that was coming, the threats, hexes, everything. He was one of the bad guys and still was, nothing would ever change that.

Draco ran his hand through his hair, seeing the scars on his arms and the Dark mark. He scowled at it and cursed at his father for ever forcing him into taking the mark. As soon as the Mark was on his skin, his soul had left him and he became the monster his father had always wanted him to become. Laying down on the grass, he let the breeze cool him down, with his blonde hair brushing across his forehead and he fell asleep.

_Lucius and Narcissa were hugging each other, looking at their son. Lucius was filled with shame, shame that the boy on the floor cowering that the Dark Lord was his son. His son, his genes and looks._

Draco stared up at the man in front of him. Voldemort was so intimidating and cowering in front of him just made him feel pathetic, he had always been weak. He could hear the Dark Lord talking, but what he said, Draco couldn"t understand and process through his head. Then suddenly a scream escaped his mouth. He squirmed in pain and continued screaming. The pain was bad and his body felt like it was being bombarded by hexes over and over again. His fingers dug deep into his palms until they started to shed blood, but that was nothing compared to what he was feeling. The pain was becoming more and more unbearable as time passed and soon everything turned black.

Draco woke up to the echo of his screams in the air. He was drenched in sweat and breathing deeply. Looking at his left forearm, he saw the Dark Mark yet again and tried to shake out all those painful memories in his head. One year, one year and still his dreams still hadn"t left him. At days he would be lucky and they wouldn"t be that bad, he would at least had a few hours of decent sleep, but on other days, it was really bad and he wouldn"t be able to close his eyes for more than a few mere seconds.

Losing his reason to stay, looking at such a peaceful view, he stood and apparated away.

XxX

Water came out of the tap as Hermione switched it on. Waiting patiently for the bath to fill with water, she started undressing herself. It had been a long day at work since she started working as a healer at St Mungo"s almost a year ago. She felt that is was her duty to protect everyone that she could, especially after the war. There had been so much death, shouting and suffering, she wanted to try and lessen the number of that, even if it was just a bit.

Once the bath was full, she slipped into the tub and let out a sigh, releasing the stress she just let the warm water calm her down, soothing her stress. However, this didn"t last long, she heard a tap on her front door. She sat up and waited until she heard another knock on her door, knowing for sure that she wasn"t just hearing things. From all her past experiences, she guessed that the chances of it being a messenger healer was high, as most times, that was the only type of visitors she ever had unless she specifically invited people over. She stepped out of the bath and cast a quick drying spell on herself with her wand and then got the closest clothes she could find and put them on.

Much to her surprise however, it was not a messenger healer standing in front of her, it was Ron and his girlfriend, Lavender. Hermione tried not to scowl at Lavender and instead looked at Ron.

"Yes what is it Ron?" She asked, trying to contain her anger.

"Oh well um, "Mione I was just wonder if you wanted to come dinner with Lavender and I." Ron replied, trying his best to conceal his nervousness, but to Hermione it was obvious.

"I apologise Ron, but I am pretty tired and was planning on just staying home for the rest of the night," it was partly true. She was of course tired, but she was still planning to go out partying with Ginny tonight at a popular Muggle Club.

Ron tried to hide his disappointment but just coughed and looked at Hermione. "Oh okay well that's understandable, sorry for bothering you then, hope you have a good night. I love you."

The last words shocked Hermione, Ron has barely ever said those three words and to say it in front of Lavender was a bonus. Hermione looked at Ron and felt her blushing. "Oh yeah... Well um it's no worries... L-l-love you too..."

There was a slight pause before Hermione coughed and closed the door, saying goodbye to both Lavender and Ron before resuming her bath.

"When will Ron realise that we weren't meant to be together?" Hermione wondered, speaking to herself. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. Tomorrow, if Ron came to see her again, would become a long and stressful day.

**A/N- **I sincerely apologise for how short this chapter is! But I just started! Please don't hate!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N-** Here's the next chapter! Hope you guys like it! I just finished exams like two days ago and have been on a writing spree! I'll upload the other chapters later!

**Disclaimer-**For now... I do not own Harry Potter. If J.K. Rowling or Tom Felton ever read this they would probably be like WTF

**Warning-**No spoilers but this chapter may be sensitive to some people (self-harm) but it's part of the story! There won't be much of this in the future I promise!

_**Chapter 2**_

A scream erupted from Draco's lips as he got up from his bed and sat up. Screaming, crying and covered in sweat. He rubbed his hands through his face and sobbed uncontrollably into it. He was having nightmares again, this one being worst compared to the others.

There was a loud knock on the door and Draco stopped.

"Draco..." it was Narcissa. "Draco honeys please open the door..."

"No." Draco replied bluntly. "Go away."

"Draco please..."

"NO! GO AWAY MOTHER!"

The knocking stopped and Draco knew his mother had left. Looking at the clock beside his bed it said it was 03:47. Not even two hours had passed and here he was, sitting and drenched in sweat.

He sighed and pondered how much longer he could keep suffering until he blew over... Perhaps this was it. He had enough of suffering and though people may call his method of escaping cowardly, he had no other choice. Getting up out of bed and towards his drawers, he pulled out a razor. Feeling the tip of the blade gave him reassurance and he felt prepared.

Having his own bathroom always had its pros and this was one of them. Complete assurance of no one disturbing him. Turning the tap on, warm water started rushing and collecting within the bathtub. Soon it was full and with that, with Draco being topless, he took of his boxers and slid into the bathtub. The warm water made him calm and think over his actions. Once he made the cut, there was no turning back.

Holding the blade in his left hand, he placed the tip of the razor on his forearm, about two thirds of the way from his wrist to his elbow, with the blade facing his palm. Feeling the cold steel on his forearm calmed him down and stopped his hand from trembling a bit. He had planned this a while ago and just needed a the bravery and courage to finally commit the act. Finally he had the courage. He slashed down, along the vein, towards the wrist and gritted his teeth to avoid shouting or making any noise, but it failed and a small moan escaped his lips.

He repeated these steps again quickly, doing the same to his left forearm instead before his already injured arm wouldn't be able to do it.

Once he was done, he lay back and relaxed in the warm water. It was done at last. The deed was done and now all that was left was to wait...

XxX

As soon as Narcissa heard the scream she woke up and knew straight away that it was Draco. They were the only two inhabitants of Malfoy Manor left, save for the house elves, due to the fact that Lucius was now currently serving life in Azkaban for his actions during Voldemort's rein. She got out of bed quickly and ran out of the room and straight to Draco's.

Trying to open the door was futile, she knew because her son always locked it before going to bed, with the only way it was ever to be opened was if it was opened from the inside.

Knocking on the door, she heard Draco sobbing and screaming. Hearing Draco scream always broke her heart and she wished at anything to stop it.

"Draco..." she cried. "Draco honey please open the door..."

"No." Draco replied bluntly. "Go away."

"Draco please..."

"NO! GO AWAY MOTHER!"

The outburst had shocked Narcissa and she pulled away from the door suddenly. She stayed there, against her son's wishes, hoping, just hoping that he would open the door and allow her to help him.

5 minutes passed. 5 soon turned to 10 and then soon 20. But nothing came. No response. Narcissa was about to give up hope and go back to her room when she heard a moan from within Draco's room. It was a moan of pain. Thoughts started running through her head. She was always worried that Draco would soon commit suicide a she feared each night that she would wake up the next morning with no son. Was this finally the case?

Without thinking, she charged into her room, grabbed her wand.

Pointing it at Draco's door she shouted "Confringo!" Draco's door suddenly burst into flames and led a pathway into his room for Narcissa. Before the fire could get out of hand however, she cast another spell. "Aguamenti!" A jet of water ejected from her wand and towards the burning door, causing the fire is dissipate.

With that over, she ran to the bathroom seeing as Draco was not in his bedroom, only to find him lying in the bathtub, blood pouring out from both of his arms. She screamed.

Draco heard the door just outside the toilet explode and he tried to stand up but couldn't. His energy was seeping out with every drop of blood that left his body and there was nothing he could do.

His mother coming into the toilet with a dreaded look on her face upset Draco. He never wished for her to see him like this, but she had to go and open the door and push herself into his business.

"Draco!" she screamed. Half sobbing and shouting she ran towards him and grabbed hold of both his hands. "Draco honey! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

Draco tried to reply but he had barely energy left. He could feel it himself; he was fading in and out. *This is it* he told himself. He closed his eyes, hoping it would be for the last time.

The sight of Draco in the bathtub covered in blood had sent her over the edge.

"Draco!" she screamed. Half sobbing and shouting she ran towards him and grabbed hold of both his hands. "Draco honey! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

But Draco said nothing and soon passed out. Narcissa froze; she couldn't let her son die. She grabbed him and pulled him out of the bathtub.

Before apparating to St Mungo's, she grabbed a towel from beside the bathtub and covered it around Draco's arms. Hopefully she wasn't too late...

**A/N-**Well I hope you enjoyed that! It was pretty short again I guess but it does get longer as you progress I swear! (May be an occasional short chapter but yea.. ) Please Review!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N-**Well this is the next chapter! I'm soo sorry that it took a bit to upload but I just had my formal and last week was a bit of a week for me. I may not be able to update for a while because I have a major assignment and exams coming up but I shall update and continue writing when I finish!

**Disclaimer- **Yes... I do not own Harry Potter :(

_**Chapter 3**_

Hermione was woken up to the sound of knocking on her front door. Sighing, she got out of bed and looked at the clock. It was 04:03. She had just had a good five hour sleep. She went out to the living room and opened the door to come face to face with a young witch wearing the St Mungo's robes. She was a messenger healer.

"Miss Granger, your presence is urgently needed at St Mungo's." the healer said, relaying the urgency of the message through the voice.

Hermione didn't bother asking questions that were now running through her head; she knew that the situation must have been grave, due to the voice of the healer and the time in which they had come. She nodded and quickly ran to her room, grabbing her robes before apparating to St Mungo's.

As soon as she got there, the healer that had come to fetch her dragged her to the Accident and Emergency room to see two healers working on a patient.

"We had a shortage of healers tonight and knew that we should call on you, and we did." the healer explained.

Hermione ran up to the patient and couldn't stop herself from letting out a gasp. The poor man had tried to kill himself. Not having the time to register who the patient was, she quickly worked her way on the wounds.

The man had done well to ensure his suicide attempt would have a high chance of becoming successful. They were deep and cut straight down the veins. Hermione concentrated on stopping the bleeding before doing anything else, but this was much more difficult than anticipated. No matter what spell Hermione and the healers used, they had no effect on healing even a bit of the wound. So In the end they had to use juggle ways and bandaged up the two wounds as best they could, trying to stop the wounds from bleeding put anymore.

Hours passed before Hermione and the patient left the Accident and Emergency and placed him in a private room with Hermione watching closely over him as the other healers left to have him under her care. This was then when Hermione was able to finally process who the patient was.

His blonde hair was pulled back and his facial features outlined nicely. Hermione gasped as she remember who this man was. Draco Lucius Malfoy. She dropped to the floor and cried quietly. Draco Malfoy, a man that always made her time at Hogwarts a living hell, an insult never failing to pass his lips whenever they came close to seeing each other and she despised him, if not hated him. As soon as they had graduated she was relieved that should would never have to see Malfoy again. Yet here he was, so close to having killed himself and she was crying over the state he was in currently.

What had caused him to do this to himself? Why would he give up everything and end his life when he had everything going for him? Why? All these questions ran through her head and soon she didn't realize that she had fallen asleep on the floor.

XxX

Narcissa entered Draco's hospital room quietly. After the healers had notified her that they had done all they could and placed him in a room under the watch of a healer, she ran straight to his room.

Those past few hours that she had spent waiting outside the Accident and Emergency room waiting for Draco had been agonizing. She was crying and her hair had been a mess. She had quickly gone home and gotten changed into some decent clothes while Draco was being looked after, and now looking at Draco lying unconscious on the hospital bed with bandages on his arms just caused her to break down again.

For at least five minutes she was crying, and she. She stopped, she say the healer whom was supposed to be watching Draco, asleep on the floor. Looking at the girl's face she knew that it was Hermione Granger, the Mudblood. What surprised Narcissa however was that her face was wet, had she been crying? What would be her reason to cry? Was Draco not an enemy of hers? These questions remained unanswered but she felt sorry for her. Carefully carrying her, Narcissa placed her on one of the chairs to sleep properly. Narcissa place herself onto the other chair and pulled it close to Draco.

"Draco please..."she whispered, doing her best to not cry again. "I am sorry for all the pain that we caused you but now please... Come back to me... I can't live Draco, not without my son being there with me. Draco please... I beg you. Wake up..." Narcissa couldn't help it and cried, but soon fell asleep.

XxX

_There was screaming, blood and bodies everywhere. Draco was lying on his stomach at Malfoy Manor. Voldemort looked down and him and pointed his wand at him, sending another Cruciatus curse towards him. The fifth one that night. He screamed out in pain and shut his eyes tightly. The pain became worst each time round and this became too unbearable for him. He started screaming and writhing in pain as Lucius and Narcissa stood by, watching Voldemort torture him._

_"This is what you will get for every time you fail me Lucius!" Voldemort shouted, still focusing his wand on the screaming Draco Malfoy. "Your son will be the one to suffer for every failure. Not you, or your wife. It will be your son."_

_Voldemort stopped the curse and Draco took a deep breath in. He was trembling and couldn't stop it._

_"Crucio!" Voldemort shouted once again towards Draco._

_Draco screamed again, as loud as he could and shut his eyes once again. He couldn't bare it any longer. He dug his nails into his palm so hard that it bled, but he didn't mind. He could feel wounds opening up due to the curse but he could do nothing about it. He was unable to do anything..._

Draco woke up again and screamed. Not only from his dream, but also from his arms. They felt like they were burning and it brought about memories of him receiving the Cruciatus curse from Voldemort.

His scream caused Narcissa and Hermione to wake up, both of whom ran straight to his side.

"I'm sorry my lord!" Draco shouted. "I won't fail you again! Please forgive me!" Draco screamed louder. "Please! N-n-noo more Cruciatus curse my lord! Please!" Draco started crying and pushed his hands to his face.

"Draco honey it's alright, the Dark Lord is gone, dead forever, so please forget about it." Narcissa begged, stopping the tears from escaping. "Everything will be alright." She hugged her crying son and cried with him. "Please come back Draco, be Draco again."

Hermione grabbed Narcissa's arms and pulled her away from Draco. "Mrs Malfoy please! Leave! You are not stable yourself to be able to help him. Go home!" she shouted.

"NO! I don't want to leave his side!"

"Mrs Malfoy just go!"

Narcissa stopped, looked at Hermione and then nodded. "Please watch him..." Then she hesitantly walked out of the room, looking at his son before nodding and then leaving, closing the door behind her. Finally having Narcissa out of the way, Hermione came up closer to Draco and hugged him.

Draco felt Hermione and her touch calmed Draco down, he stopped shouting and shaking and just hugged Hermione.

"Draco.. Shhhh don't worry everything is going to be alright now. I promise you that..." Hermione said reassuringly.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N-** Okay well I'll be posting up two chapters today (Hope you guys will like it!) since I probably won't be able to post again until like next week or maybe even the week after! (Shall try to avoid that!) Well I Hope you guys enjoy this! Please excuse any mistakes such as spelling, I haven't proof read this, just posted it now so as to let you guys read a bit more! Please review!

**Disclaimer-**I'm not Rowling sadly :( if I was I would either be shipping Dramione or Hermione/Fred or George instead of Hermione/Ron.

_**Chapter 4**_

Morning came around pretty quickly, waking up Hermione. Taking a yawn she looked around to see Draco asleep in her arms. She smiled and stared at the boy. How weak he looked and so defenceless that she ended up respecting Draco more than she would ever admit to either Harry or Ron. Draco started moving within her arms and woke up. Once she realised that he was in Hermione's arms he pulled back and stood.

"Hermione..." Draco said, almost as if the name was filth.

"Don't. I know I know I'm a filthy mudblood but can I least get a thank you for saving your life last night?"

"Don't! Don't call yourself that... I… Did you really save me?"

"Of course! It's my job, why? You surprised?"

Draco took a look at his bandaged forearms and suddenly slapped Hermione on the cheek. "Stinking mudblood. You just made my life yet again another nightmare. Is this pay back for how I treated you back at Hogwarts? Revenge is it? I never knew you would be the type to get vengeance."

Draco stormed out of the room and could be heard shouting at the healers "I"ve discharged myself!"

A healer came into the room and informed Hermione that Draco had apparated. She nodded and stood up, rubbing her cheek. He had slapped her, and of course being the stupid little mudblood she was, she had actually thought that he had changed. But perhaps he didn"t. She walked out of the room and apparated.

XxX

Draco stood outside Malfoy Manor, deciding whether he wanted to go inside or not. Deciding that it was no use, he had all the money he needed at Gringotts, he apparated away.

XxX

Two weeks later

XxX

The music drowned out all of Hermione's worries, dancing along to the music with Ginny and drinking. Girls and boys were dancing all around them and at the front was the DJ throwing out the beats. The best muggle club in London? Ginny sure knew her clubs.

Hernoine screamed in happiness and joined in the group, her dress shaking along with her. Looking at Ginny, she herself was having the time of her life. She was with a guy over at the benches, and they seemed to be having a great time together. Hermione laughed and hoped that she would find someone like that tonight. After being with Ron for six months and then hearing news from Harry about the secret relationship with Lavender had shattered her heart. She hadn't trusted another man since then except for Harry, but the meeting with Draco at the hospital had showed her to forget about the past and not let it get to you. It was because of that, that she was now here at a muggle club planning on getting hooked.

Lifting up her bottle of vodka, she drank what was left and let it control her. No more rational thoughts. She grabbed a nearby guy that was dancing and kissed him on the lips. It took a while for the guy to react, but when he did, it was passionate.

They pulled each other away from the dance floor and onto a table, there they sat, kissing each other passionately, groping at each other. The man pulled away for a breath and looked at Hermione.

"Dayum girl. How much you been drinkin?" he said, amused at Hermione's giggling.

"Just a few.. Bottles, now come on gimmie that kiss." Hermione replied and pulled the man back to her lips. They kissed again and Hermione pulled out and let out a small groan when he touched her ass. "I like that…." Then she pulled him closer and started feeling up his chest. His chest was hairless, but when she ran her hands across his hair, they felt smooth and ran easily across her fingers. She kissed more passionately but then once again the guy pulled back.

"Let's not stay here… My place?"

Hermione laughed and nodded, leaning on the man as he pulled her up and helped her out of the bar. Being the witch Hermione was, and also being drunk at the same time, she didn't feel anything when the man apparated them to his apartment and they went inside, still kissing. On the bed they started undressing each other until Hermione was down to her bra and matching underwear, and the guy was in his boxers. Hermione laughed and lay on his bed.

"Come on then..." She pulled the man's face closer to hers and kissed, then letting him take over...

**A/N**- Yes this is a short chapter I know! That's also why I posted another chapter up! So yea! Pleae review!


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N**- Here is the next chapter I promised! I hope you guys enjoy! Won't be able to update until next week or the week after as I said before! And I apologize for that! Please review!

**Disclaimer-**I am not Rowling, if I was... oh how Fred would never have died...

_**Chapter 5**_

Draco stirred in his sleep. He was having yet another nightmare, he walked through the corridors of Hogwarts and passed through piles of bodies, all of them were dead and voices were running through his head. All of them were shouting his name and placing blame on his.

"_Draco... All of this... You're fault, you'll pay!" a voice said and suddenly a figure appeared in front of him, taking the form of Harry. Draco pulled out his wand and so did Harry. "I'm going to kill you.."_

"_I'd like to see you try Potter, you couldn't shoot a killing curse even if you wanted to!"Draco sneered. "Sectumsempra!" The spell hit Harry in the chest and he dissolved into smoke, suddenly forming again behind Draco. _

"_What's the matter Malfoy? You brought this onto yourself." Harry pointed his wand at Draco and uttered a spell. _

Draco woke up screaming and shaking. Looking at his hands he saw his attempted suicide wounds. They had healed but left scars that he would never forget, these were just a new set of scars to add to those already on his wrists and body. He felt movement next to him and what he saw, he would never be able to believe. Hermione Granger was lying next to him naked, she stirred a bit more and then opened her eyes.

"Draco Malfoy..." she said

XxX

"Draco Malfoy..."

Hermione looked at the man sitting next to her and she couldn't believe it.

"What are you doing here?"She demanded and sat up, she quickly realised that she was naked and grabbed the blankets to cover herself.

"I'd like to ask you the same thing!" Malfoy shouted. "This is my apartment!"

"Apartment? What happened to Malfoy Manor?"

"Nothing a mudblood like you would care about. Now get out of my fucking apartment before I hex you into the next century!"

"My pleasure!" She grabbed her wand from the side table. "Accio clothes!" All her clothes came to her and she stared coldly at Malfoy. "I need to get changed. Get. Out."

"My apartment, so you can't say anything. You want to get changed? You can do it in front of me. It's not like you've got anything else I haven't seen already." He smirked.

Hermione gave him a scowled, grabbing the blankets she levitated it between her and Malfoy and had it as a wall as she got changed. "Prick," she muttered under her breath. When she finished getting changed she brought the sheet back down, to see Malfoy up putting on his boxers.

Draco saw her looking at him and he smirked. "Like what you see Granger?" She scowled at him, but then froze when she saw his arms and chest as he put his jeans on. Not only were there scars from when he had tried to kill himself and ended up at St Mungo's, there were also smaller cuts. An addition to those smaller cuts, there was a large cut and a tattoo on his left collar bone, though what it was a tattoo of, Hermione couldn't tell clearly.

"Malfoy..."

"What? You're changed now aren't you? Why don't you apparate back home? You can use my fireplace if you must."

"We should-"

"No we shouldn't! You've already ruined my life! GET. THE. FUCK. OUT!"

The sudden outburst shocked Hermione and without thinking she apparated away back to her own apartment, where she ended up in tears on her sofa.

XxX

Draco swore to himself and continued getting changed. He caught a quick glance at the clock and realised that he was almost late to the counselling group meeting. He apparated to a nearby alley and then went to the small church building.

XxX

There were lots of people at this week's meeting, a lot more than last week, all of them from between the ages of 18-25. The head of the group; Jonathon sat next to Draco and shushed everyone together.

"Alright then, let's start shall we?" he said. "Let's start, who wants to volunteer?"

A man, somewhat around Draco's age put his hand up and started talking about his week, what was bothering him and everything else in the middle. Draco yawned and tried his best to look focused for the next forty-five minutes and didn't speak a single word. Just as the next man finished what he was saying, Jonathon clapped his hands and gave Draco a pat on the back.

"You haven't said anything since the meeting started, you didn't say anything last week either, why not come out now?" he said.

Draco shook off the man's hand from his shoulder and stood up. "I don't want to, I thought I could but there's nothing else left in this fucking shit hole." He made a move to leave when Jonathon spoke up again.

"Life is always painful and we all make mistakes. But it's what we decide to do with those mistakes that make us. We either let it break us, or become us, or make us stronger. Remember that."

Draco didn't look back, he just left, and after making sure that nobody could see him, he apparated back to his apartment.

XxX

Hermione sat at her sofa crying for about fifteen minutes until she stopped and picked herself back up from the ground. She felt guilty, looking back to when she had seen Draco at the hospital, and then waking up next to him in bed, even after through all the insults that he had thrown at her, she felt sorry for Draco. After the war, she had suffered because of the death of others, but as she had just seen, Draco had been affected a lot more, and for the past year he had only just gotten worst. She wanted to help him, but at the same time she was scared that she would just push him over the edge again. She needed advice, and she knew just where she could get it from.

She called out to her owl, Angel and wrote a quick letter to Ginny, not explaining what predicament she was in, but just asking her to come by when she could and asked how Harry and Teddy were doing. Giving the letter to Angel, she saw the owl fly out of the window and send the message to its recipient.

While waiting for a reply, she started on her paperwork, but every now and then, her thoughts would divert again to Draco. She just couldn't believe that the man she had always hated during their school years could now look so.. helpless and it just made Hermione sad.

Time flew by carelessly for Hermione and she fell asleep midway through her paperwork. What woke her up though was the small tapping noise on her window. It was Angel, her black feathers ruffling as she tapped away on the window trying to get Hermione's attention. She opened the window and let Angel in. She saw that Angel was carrying a letter so she took it from her and read it.

_Dear Hermione,_

_ What is it? I hope Angel can get this to you quickly because I'm free later today, around 8 o'clock so I'll floo there sometime then if that's alright?_

_Oh, Harry and Teddy are great! Harry really is becoming such a great father! Ted is growing up so quickly he's learning how to walk now! He is absolutely adorable. I know you didn't ask but I also wanted to talk to you about Ron when I come there later because if my prat of a brother told this to you in person I have a feeling you would break down or end up punching him in the face. _

_I hope you're alright, can't wait to see you tonight._

_ Lots of love  
>Ginny<br>xxx_

Hermione smiled as she read through the letter but soon became really curious when she mentioned Ron. Ideas went running through her head. With Ginny's reference that she would end up punching Ron's face if she heard it from him gave her the idea that it must have something to do with Lavender. Scowling at Lavender's name she scrunched the letter up and threw it into the bin. Ron was a prick for choose Lavender, anyone else was better than Lavender, but of course Ron was too blind to see that.

**A/N-** Well I hope you guys enjoyed that! Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N-** Here is the next chapter for you guys! I just handed my progress report for my assignment and my exams are well... I don't really care anymore since they are pretty easy and I think I've studied enough. So I **MAY **update again tomorrow (depends how much writing I can get done tonight and tomorrow :) ) Hope you guys like it!

**Disclaimer- **Harry Potter is so mine... Not :(

_**Chapter 6**_

Time went by pretty slowly for Hermione as she waited for Ginny to floo to her apartment, but her patience was well rewarded when Ginny appeared at her fireplace. Upon seeing each other they gave each other a hug and Hermione led her to the living room and they sat on the sofa.

"So missy, where did you run off to yesterday?" Ginny said, nudging Hermione's shoulder and giving her a quick wink.

"Let's just say I ran into Draco Malfoy again..."

Ginny covered her mouth and gave Hermione a shocked look. "Sweet Merlin... Wait, rewind, did you just say _again?_ Hermione Jean Granger! What are you not telling me?"

"Nothing! Listen..."

And so began Hermione's tale, from when she took care of Draco and his wounds to when she woke up in his bed naked. Ginny listened intently and interrupted as little as possible, with the odd "Sweet Merlin," and "Oh my!" here and there and some questions, but apart from that, she listened. Which was a changed to when Hermione told her other stories, where she would interrupt with every little question and detail that was bugging her. Hermione was thankful for Ginny's minimal interruption and when she finished, Ginny was shocked.

"He... He really did that?" she asked? "Merlin's beard... I actually kind of feel sorry for the kid now."

"I don't know what to do Ginny!" Hermione wailed. "I really want to help him but... I'm scared I'll push him over the edge and end up having him commit suicide again! I'm also scared that he might just push me away! Ginny, I need help."

"Of course you do! Listen, since you know where he lives now thanks to last night... Why not pay him a visit? Not today though! Wait a couple of days and talk to him, heck, hex him if you have to and talk to him about what you want. You want to help him and that you'll be there."

"Are you sure about that Ginny? "Cause I'm really scared that I might just end up just-"

"Don't think alright! Just do it! Trust me! It'll work, do it sometime this week and don't be scared to hex him if he won't listen."

"Fine... Anyways, what was that news you wanted to tell me about Ron?"

"Oh yes.. Well.. I don't know how I'm going to make this easy for you but... Ron and Lavender... They're getting married."

Hermione froze and thought about what Ginny had just said. Ron was actually going to marry Lavender. Thoughts started running through her head. Ronald Weasley was marrying Lavender, and she was going to become Lavender Weasley? The sound of that made her want to gag but she stopped herself. She looked at Ginny who looked at her sympathetically and grabbed her hand.

"Seriously 'Mione, if I'm going to be honest... You can do someone than that brother of mine. You deserve better." She smiled at me sympathetically.

"Thanks Gin, listen, that was all I really wanted to talk to you about. Do you want to have like a late dinner though? I don't know if you've eaten yet."

"No I'm alright, I need to go back anyways, I'm scared that Harry can't watch Teddy." With that they both laughed and Ginny stood up. They hugged, then waving to each other for the last time, Ginny stepped into the fireplace, shouted her destination and green flames erupted and she disappeared.

Hermione stared at the now empty fireplace and thoughts ran through her head. Lavender and Ron were _married!_ It seemed so ridiculous, but when she thought about it, it was something that Ron would do. She signed and slumped back on the sofa, soon falling asleep.

XxX

Draco walked back into his apartment, the first thing that he did was reach for a glass of firewhiskey and drinking it all at once. He stood for a minute and leaned on the sink letting the liquid into his system, first heating up his throat a bit before it finally sunk in and caused Draco to feel a bit dizzy. _Stupid little mudblood, she had to go and ruin everything for me. Maybe I could try another way... _He stopped and contemplated a bit, running through his head and scanning what choices he had- which were very limited in his opinion.

After what seemed like hours to him, Draco came back from his thoughts and looked down at the empty glass of firewhiskey. Smiling to himself, he refilled it...

XxX

Hermione woke up the next day with the stiff neck. Recalling back the events of the day before she realised that she had fallen asleep on the sofa, still in her pink blouse and jeans. She got up and relaxed her neck before going back to the toilet to take a quick shower.

Once the warm water came into contact with her skin she suddenly relaxed and started to think about Draco. She wasn't going to lie to herself, she couldn't. The truth was that she was _really _worried about Draco. It had been a year since they last saw each other, and though they never really left on good terms, she couldn't just forget about someone that _clearly_ wanted to forget about their mistakes and were honestly sorry about them. He honestly tried to kill himself and seriously believed that there was nothing left in the world for him!

She turned the shower off and cast a quick drying spell before getting changed. Ginny had told her to wait a few days before seeing Draco again, but there was a feeling in her guts that if she didn't go soon... Well she didn't want to dwell into that.

XxX

Hermione knocked on Draco's apartment door; standing there impatiently she shouted out Draco's name again and demanded that he open the door. But still she got the same response she had been receiving for the past five minutes. Utter silence. She swore, and quickly looked around at her surroundings, making sure that there weren't any muggles before she pulled out her wand.

"Alohamora," she said, casting the spell quickly on the locked door. She heard the soft _'click' _of the door unlocking itself and she tucked her wand back into her back pocket. She opened the door and took a quick peek into the room. It was a lot messier then she remembered yesterday, there were clothes everywhere and there were a few empty glasses on the kitchen table. She walked in and took a better look at Draco's apartment.

There was a trail of clothes all the way down the hall to the Master's Bedroom. Hermione pulled out her wand and walked slowly towards the Master's Bedroom. Ever since the war and when her, Harry and Ron had run away a while before the while 'officially' started, she had become a lot more paranoid. It was a habit, one she was yet to decide whether she was glad to have or not.

Once inside the room she sighed and tucked away her wand. Draco was lying on the bed- though he wasn't tugged it, it seemed like he had stumbled onto the bed and fell asleep as soon as he came into contact with the material. He was sleeping so soundly and Hermione just stared at him and smiled. For all the times that she had ever seen him, this was the only time he ever looked... _peaceful._ This made Hermione happy and she sat next to Draco on the bed and watched him sleep.

XxX

Draco woke up, realising that there was someone was lying next to him. He jumped up quickly and instantly regretted it. His head felt like it was being pounded and stepped on by at least a dozen hippogriffs. He moaned a little bit at the sudden pain in his head and rushed straight to the toilet for a hangover potion. He gulped it down in one shot and soon the pounding disappeared and he sighed in relief. He had barely ever gotten that drunk and when he did, it was never alone, it was usually with Blaise but he was currently in Italy spending time with his girlfriend, leaving him, all alone.

He walked out of the toilet and froze when he saw a person walking out of his room. To make things even weirder, it wasn't just anyone. It was Hermione Granger.

"Granger!" he shouted and ran up to her. "What are you doing here?"

Hermione turned around and saw Draco right in front of her. She looked shocked at first and then smiled.

"I wanted to try and help you get through things. I know they have been rough and I know how-" She tried to continue but then Draco cut her off.

"No you don't understand how I feel! No one fucking does! Why the heck are you here? I thought you _hated_ my guts! Why don't you just continue hating me! Just leave me the fuck alone!" He walked past Hermione, trying to avoid her touch in the small, compact hall and just barely succeeding.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy! You will listen to me! You are not going to throw your life away for stupid mistakes that you did! They are in the past! Everything is alright, open your eyes!" She froze suddenly when Draco turned around, pointing his wand at her face and tears trailed down his cheeks.

"No! They are mistakes that I fucking deserve to die for! I... it's because of me that Dumbledore died! I let them in!"

"But it's over! The war is over!"

"Get. Out. Now. Don't make me hex you."

"Draco lis-"

"OUT!"

Hermione put her hands up in defeat and slowly walked towards Draco, who walked back to allow Hermione to leave the hall. She stopped once she reached the front door. "Draco please..."

"Get. The. Fuck. Out." As a way to prove how serious he was, he pointed his wand towards one of the empty glasses that were sitting on the kitchen table and caused it to shatter with a flick of his wand. He turned back to Hermione and pointed his wand at her face. "I suggest you leave if you want to keep your _lovely _face."

Hermione scowled at Draco before she turned around and left. Once the door closed, Draco set charms on it so that no one except him could open it, and once he did, he strolled bad to his room. Seriously thinking about what he should do next.

XxX

Hermione stood outside of Draco's apartment and listened in as best as she could. She heard him uttering a few spells but she wasn't able to hear what spells he was casting, in her mind though she had a rough guess and had a rough idea what type of spells they could be. She sighed, cursed and then apparated back to her apartment.

XxX

Days for Hermione felt like years, she wanted to start working again but she still had two days off work, and until those two days passed, she was stuck at her apartment reading books. She couldn't visit Ginny because she was stuck looking after Teddy while Harry was doing his Auror training, and with Ron... Well he was with Lavender she assumed, it was either that or helping George out at the shop.

Ever since Fred's death Ron was the one to always look out for George, especially since the incident where he almost killed himself. The images still ran through her head. Entering George's room and seeing him lying down, at first it looked like he was just asleep, until she saw all the empty bottles of pills on his table. She screamed and quickly took his pulse, which was still there. She shouted out calling for Ron, Harry, Ginny.. _Anyone_ that would be able to hear her. After she checked his vitals she felt his chest until she felt that his liver was hard. She then had a rough idea of what type of pills he had taken and what it was doing, it was destroying his liver and he would die soon if they didn't do something about it. She screamed again at the top of her lungs and this time she could hear footsteps running up the stairs. She turned to see Ron, Molly and Ginny looking at her. She tried to keep a serious face and tell them to take George to St Mungo's while she contacted their family, but she ended up crying...

**A/N- **Yeee! Well I hope you guys liked that chapter! Please don't forget to review! I love when people review! :D


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N- **Alrightyy well here is another chapter! This one isn't really that long but yes... I'll make it up to you guys I swear! :D Please review! I love reading reviews! Oh I was wondering if anyone wanted to be my BETA reader for this Dramione story? :D

**Disclaimer- **I stole Harry Potter, he is now in my closet. Ahaha no! I wish :'(

_**Chapter 7**_

A week passed and Hermione felt great working again after her long break, helping people again always made her feel useful, though there were people that said saving the wizarding world with Harry and Ron was enough help to last her a couple of lifetimes, she just shook her head at them and told them that she wanted to help everyone until she was old.

She looked at the list of patients that she had for the day and quickly went through them until she reached the last one. The old healer that was assigned to the patient was her best friend Brian, but he was currently on leave so now she had his patient. She reached room 135 where the patient was located and opened the door. What she saw shocked her and caused her to drop her clipboard. It clattered on the floor, but that didn't bother her. She arrived just to see the patient grab their wand and point it at themselves. It wasn't also just any other patient, it was Draco Malfoy... again.

"Draco!" she shouted and stepped inside, moving slowly towards Draco, who was now trembling as he held his wand to his chest. He was crying and they dripped down to his hospital robes.

"Hermione... Again. Go away!" he shouted. Hermione tried to come closer. "Come any closer and I'll do it." That caused Hermione to stop and look pleadingly at him.

"Draco please... Talk to me..."

"I failed again! First my wrists... then an OD but it didn't work! I... I can't live anymore. I can't do this..."

"You've tried to kill yourself twice in one month and they both failed! That must mean that you were made to live!"

"Yes! To live and suffer! If there is a god out there, they must really hate me. I've suffered enough! I want to leave!"

"You aren't the only one that suffered you stinking ferret!"

Being called a ferret stung Draco and reminded him of his time at fourth year when Mad-Eye had turned him into a ferret for making fun of Potter. "I can't live anymore Hermione..."

"You aren't the only one that suffered after the war. People lost friends, families, mentors and much more. Please think about your actions..."

"No more... I just want to say sorry. For everything that I've done, calling you a mudblood, hurting you and your friends. I'm sorry for this as well. _Ava-_"

Before Hermione realised what was happening she had pulled out her wand and shouted the first spell that came to mind. "_Expelliarmus!" _With a quick flick of her wand, Draco's wand flew out of his hand. Draco looked at her almost like he was ready to kill. But before he was able to react, Hermione cast another spell. "I'm sorry Malfoy... Stupefy!" Draco fell back, hit the wall and was knocked unconscious.

XxX

Draco woke up with a slight headache, he tried to move his hands and feet but her couldn't. He looked up as best as he could and what he saw angered him. His hands were strapped at either side of the bed and his feet wire strapped the bottom corner of the bed. He screamed and tried to break the ropes but they were tied well. He stopped when he saw Hermione standing up next to him.

"You... I HATE YOU!" he shouted. He started crying but continued to shout at Hermione. "I..." *hiccup* "Hate..." *hiccup* "You..." After saying that he couldn't anymore and was just sobbing, with the occasional muttering of hating life and wanting to die.

XxX

Hermione looked down at Draco crying. She waited for him to calm down until he calmed down. When he did, she grabbed his chin softly and made him look at her.

"Draco... I want you to listen. I spoke to Narcissa and she gave you two options." She said, trying to sound as calm as possible, but she was scared at what Draco would say. Would he shout at her again? Instead he just whispered softly at her, and it caused her to lean in to hear what he was saying.

"What did she say?" he whispered.

Hermione could feel his breath on her ear and she wanted to pull back, but then hesitated. "One, we could erase your memories. Or the second option, the one I suggested to her was that I could look after you until I felt that you were safe." _Please choose the second option. I really don't want to make you forget a part of your life. No matter what you did... It's wrong..._

Draco relaxed a bit and pulled his face away from Hermione. What was he going to do? _I have the chance to forget everything. Pretend like they never happened... Well logically they wouldn't have happened since I have no memory of it. But then that would be running away. Dear Merlin! That means I'd have to stay with Granger! Perhaps that wouldn't be so bad... I could get her forgiveness and maybe she could help me. I've neglected her enough... _he looked back at Hermione and smiled. "Would you be willing... To let me stay with you?" He smiled as best as he could and tried to keep the nervousness out of his voice, but he couldn't help it. _Please let me. I want to get better..._

Hermione laughed and smacked Draco playfully on the shoulder. "Course! I mean I was the one that suggested to Narcissa the idea of you staying with me,"

Draco smiled, for the first time in a year he smiled, and it wasn't a fake smile. He was truly happy for once.

"I'll be back in a bit to sort out some things. We'll stop by at your apartment to get some of your things." She smiled and then took out her wand, with a quick flick of it the ropes that tied Draco to the bed disappeared and Draco sat up immediately. "I'm sorry though but you can't have a wand, not until I feel you won't do anything stupid with it."

Draco tried to protest but then Hermione put her hand up to stop him.

"I'm sorry but I won't have you do any stupid things." With that, she left the room.

XxX

Draco stumbled out of the fireplace and into Hermione's house. He stood up quickly and dusted off the soot that was on his clothes. Hermione came out of the kitchen and gave Draco a cup of coffee.

"I didn't know how you liked coffee, or if you even do like it. But here you can try," Hermione said as she handed the cup of coffee.

Draco looked down at the strange brown substance in the cup and then looked back up at Hermione. He took a quick sip of the coffee and suddenly loved the taste. There was a slight bitterness within the drink but he liked that, it was sweet as well. He looked at Hermione and smiled before he started drinking more of the coffee.

Hermione smiled at Draco who was too busy drinking the coffee to notice her smile. She chuckled when Draco finished and he looked at her.

"Thank you," he said and he smiled for the second time that day.

"Alright, it's getting dark. I'll show you to your room. You're stuffs already there." Hermione walked down the hall making sure that Draco was following behind.

Draco _was _following her but at the same time he was also curious about her. _Why would she help me? I made her time at Hogwarts a living hell for her and her friends Potter and that Weasley kid. Now here she is, helping me, _wanting _me to get better through hard work instead of just quickly obliviating my memories of the war. Maybe she actually thinks I've changed… I want to. I think I'm going to need her help with that though. _They suddenly stopped in front of a room and Hermione motioned for him to go in. He compiled and gasped. The room was plain white with a double bed in the corner, there was a strange box with a screen in front of it. Near the exit of the door was an in-built cupboard and there was a table just beside it. But then suddenly as he entered deeper into the room, the walls changed to emerald green with black and silver stripes. The bed's cover sheets also changed to a dark green colour and the pillows changed to black. As he walked deeper into the room, admiring the change that had just occurred, he looked down at his feet and saw that the floor too had changed from its peachy carpety fabric to floorboards, easily matching the rest of the room. Draco turned back at Hermione with a 'o' forming on his mouth.

"What happened?" he asked when he finally found his voice.

"Room charm, this is the guest room and I charmed it to change its appearance to suit the person that stayed here. I can that you are very Slytherin." She replied, smiling. She loved Draco's reaction to when the room changed colour and appearance. She also saw that maybe there was hope for the broken man in front of him. Things could get better and she was going to show him that times had changed after the war. "Well... It's dark, you should sleep now." Hermione smiled as she left Draco and closed the door behind her.

XxX

A ear-shattering scream awoke Hermione from her sleep. She got up and quickly and tried to figure out the source of where the scream was coming from. She slapped herself on the forehead when she remembered that the only other person in her apartment was Draco. She quickly charged out of her room, running down the hall she barged into the guest room to find Draco sitting up, drenched in sweat and his feet tangled in the covers. He was crying and muttering things to himself that Hermione couldn't hear. Quickly rushing to his side, she hugged him and shook him back and forth, whispering to him how everything would become better.

It took a few minutes for Draco to calm down, but when he did, he was hugging Hermione back and burying his face into her neck, his eyes still wet with tears.

Once Hermione believed that Draco was calm enough, she carefully pulled him away from her chest and placed him on the bed. She stood and walked to leave the room, but just as she was about to, Draco called out.

"Please... Don't go..." He said. Hermione looked back at him, smiled and then nodded.

"Okay, let me just get a chair from the kitchen." She said and tried to leave again.

"No! You can... Lie down next to me." Draco shuffled to the other end of the bed and pulled the blanket off him, inviting Hermione to lie down. She quickly walked towards the bed and lay down next to him. She felt Draco's breath on her neck as he shuffled closer to her, closely placing an arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him. "Please don't leave," he whispered into her ear.

Hermione nodded slowly and turned around to face Draco, placing her face into his chest, they both soon fell asleep in each other's arms.

**A/N-** Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! And BETA reader wanted! Please send me an inbox or w/e if interested :D


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N-**Here is there next chapter for you guys! I hope you like it! Please don't forget to review! :D And I am so sorry, I've liked uploaded and then deleted this chapter at least twice I think and I am soo sorry!

**Disclaimer-**I'm not JK :(

**Credit-**Massive thank you to QueenMinnie for BETA reading this chapter :D

_**Chapter ****8**_

Hermione woke up the next day to find a hand around her waist. She quickly remembered the events that took place the night before and smiled, realising that she was in Draco's arms. She snuggled closer to him and wrapped her arms around his chest, only to encounter a bare chest. It seemed that during the night he had taken his top off. It gave Hermione a chance to see his chest however, and to look closer at the tattoo she had seen before but not fully inspect. It was a small image of an angel falling, feathers drifting off of her wings. Hermione looked at it in awe. Though it was only black and white, the artwork was magnificent and the details on the wings were amazing. The view of the angel's face was obscured by her hair, but the detail that went into the body amazed Hermione. If she ever planned on getting a tattoo, she knew she would have to ask Draco where he had gotten his done. As well as the tattoo, she saw the scars that she had seen previously, and a larger one that slashed across his chest. She wanted to ask about it, but a voice inside her head told her to wait.

"Morning, Granger," a voice just above her head said. She turned away from Draco's chest and looked him in the face. She had been so transfixed with his chest that she hadn't realised that he had woken up. "I see you like my tattoo?"

"It's amazing, very well done. Did it hurt?" she asked.

"If you got one then yes, but I... I was used to the pain so this wasn't really much different." Hermione got up out of bed and looked at him. "Don't go!"

"I'm not. You're coming with me; we're going for a walk. Get you to stop thinking negative." She held out her hand and hoped Draco would take it. He did and she pulled him off the bed. "There's a spare bathroom right next to this room, you can take a shower there." She smiled, then walked quickly out of his room and into her own, closing the door hastily behind her. As soon as it was shut, she grabbed a white T-Shirt with the words '_I __Love __NYC_' printed across the front and grabbed a pair of black skinny jeans.

An hour later Hermione was half pulling and half guiding Draco out of the apartment.

"Come on Draco!" she said, pulling him out of the apartment. "I'm taking you to the best cafe in town!"

Draco stopped and looked at Hermione. "Does it sell coffee?"

Hermione laughed at his question and nodded. "I'll buy you as much coffee as you want if you leave the apartment." Draco grinned and then allowed Hermione to drag her outside and into the streets of London.

XxX

Draco walked down the streets of London holding onto Hermione's hand. At the same time he was thinking about the events that occurred the night before. _Hermione's __given __me __hope. __Hope __that __I __gave __up __on __months __ago. __She's... __she's __giving __me __a __second __chance __even __after __all __those __things __I __did __to __her __at __Hogwarts. __She's __also __holding __my __hand; __she __hasn't __pulled __back __or __anything. __Her __hands __are __so __warm __and __smooth. __Her __hair __looks __so __beautiful __when __it's __bushy __and __I __can't __believe __she __finds __it __annoying. __What __kind __of __guy __would __not __like __her __hair? __Apples... __Hmmm, __that's __what __they __smelt __like __yesterday...__Wonder __if __they __smell __like __that __again? _Draco froze on the spot and Hermione stopped, looking at him curiously. _Did__I__just...__Am__I__falling__for__Hermione__Granger?__I__can't__be!__I'm__just__someone__she__wants__to__help..._He shook his head and tried to get those thoughts out of his head. Hermione looked at him with a worried expression on her face.

"Draco?" she asked, her voice filled with concern. "Are you alright?"

He looked at her and smiled.

"Yes don't worry," he replied, smiling at her reassuringly. "Come on, where is this cafe? I want coffee."

Hermione looked at him worryingly before she shook her head. "Alright, it's close to here." They started walking again, still holding hands, and while they did, Hermione didn't see the smile that was on Draco's face.

They spent an hour at the cafe, laughing and talking to each other. About their life after the war- Draco didn't have much to say, well, didn't have much that he _wanted_ to say. So it was pretty much Hermione that talked about her life this past year to Draco. But Hermione felt good. Here was someone who was actually willing to listen to her besides Ginny. Harry was busy with his Auror training and Ron, well, she didn't really talk to him that much anymore. Draco was also enjoying himself. He loved the sound of Hermione's voice, and he loved how she used hand gestures to emphasise what she was saying. Her voice was like an angel, and her face was unlike any other woman. She didn't need make-up to be pretty, and she didn't use it either. She said she hated the stuff. The only times that she wore make-up was for special occasions, and they rarely happened. Deciding that he wanted to spend the rest of the day with Hermione, Draco stood up and led Hermione out of the café, both of them with smiles upon their faces.

XxX

It was Draco's second night staying with Hermione, and it was off to a great start. They had spent a large amount of time at the cafe, and even longer at the local library, finishing the day with a quick stroll through the park. There were times during the day that Draco would catch Hermione giving him glances when she thought he couldn't see her. She wasn't directly looking at his face however; she had her eye on the mark on his left forearm. The Dark Mark, to be exact.

The look she on her face was a mixture of disgust and shame. As he sat on the bed later, he looked down on his scar, topless again and just wearing the jeans he wore earlier. Scowling at it, he thought of ways to get rid of the disgusting reminder of his past, but he could think of none that had a possibility of working. He had thought of cutting himself, but Hermione had confiscated all of the sharp things in his room, save for the shaving razor. He knew he could use it, but it wasn't sharp enough to leave the desired result.

Draco then realised that he had something to compensate for the razor. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pencil sharpener he had stolen from a newsagent's when Hermione wasn't looking. Walking into the kitchen, he saw Hermione making coffee for them. He smiled at her as she handed him a cup, and gave her a nod in thanks.

"Hey, I was wondering if you had a small ruler I could use?" he asked.

"Yeah sure, let me get it." Hermione replied, putting her coffee down onto the table. She went into her room, coming out a few minutes later with a small steel ruler. "Sorry, I only had this one," she said as she handed him the ruler.

"It's alright, thanks." He quickly finished his coffee and went back to his room, trying to not look suspicious as he did so.

After he closed the door, he rushed to the edge of the bed and sat down. He held the steel ruler in one hand, the sharpener in the other. He placed the edge of the ruler onto the head of the screw holding the steel blade to the plastic body. He started turning clockwise to loosen the screw- it took a few attempts to get it loose at first. Soon the screw fell off and the blade of the sharpener fell into the palm of his hand. When the cold steel came into contact with his palm he relaxed a bit, feeling the power he had right now. He could choose to cut, or not to cut. But he knew he would choose the first option, it was the whole reason as to why he was doing this in the first place. Dropping the razor down on the bed, he grabbed an edge of the bed sheet and put it into his mouth as a gag, to muffle his screams. He gripped the razor blade with his right hand and placed it onto his left forearm where the Dark Mark was. From one end he pushed down deeply, and cut across as deep and as fast as he could. Draco screamed into the gag and closed his eyes as the blood dripped down his wrist. Before his body could object, he quickly sliced another cut across his wrist, just below the one he just did.

This process continued until he had sliced across the whole of the Dark Mark, covering it with large cuts. The wound had started to bleed profusely. Drops of blood dripped down onto the carpet, prompting him to run out from his room to the bathroom quickly. But he forgot to check the hallway, and he bumped into Hermione just as he had left his room. Draco froze when he saw the expression on Hermione's face. _Shit, __I'm __so __screwed!_

XxX

Hermione was walking down the hall to the bathroom, when Draco suddenly barged out of his room and bumped into her. Before she could say anything, she saw Draco covering his left forearm and blood was seeping through his fingers. Before he could react, she grabbed his left forearm and forced his fingers to open and show her the wound.

"Her-" he tried to object, but she had already seen it.

She froze when she saw the wound. He was bleeding badly, and where the Dark Mark was there were large cuts. Draco was obviously attempting to try and get rid of it. Quickly coming back to her senses, Hermione pulled Draco into the toilet and ran his arm under the cold water in the sink. She heard Draco let out a sharp hiss as the water came into contact with his skin, but she ignored it, trying to clear as much blood as she could to be able to properly inspect the wound- or wounds, as she finally saw when most of the blood was gone. Blood was still seeping through the cuts, but the cold water was slowing down the process. While Draco's arm was resting under the water, Hermione looked above the sink to the medicine cabinet and got out a roll of bandages and some rubbing alcohol. She turned the tap off, and quickly dried Draco's forearm with a towel.

"This is going to hurt but bear with me," she warned as she covered a cotton ball with alcohol, then dabbed it onto the wound.

Draco hissed in pain and tried to pull his arm away, but she held onto it tightly.

"Don't move."

Draco continued to hiss as Hermione kept dabbing the alcohol onto the wound. Soon she stopped and started wrapping it with the bandage.

XxX

Draco looked down at his forearm as Hermione wrapped the bandage around it. The movement of her hands was elegant and graceful, yet precise. Her placement of the bandage on his forearm was neat. It stung a bit at first when the bandage had come into contact with his wound, but now it wasn't so bad. He looked up from his arm and into Hermione's face. It was full of concentration; her tongue was peeking out at the corner of her mouth. When she finished bandaging up his forearm, she looked up at him. The concentration that he had seen on her face was replaced with disappointment. Before he was able to explain the reason to his cutting, Draco was dragged out of the toilet and into the lounge room, where he was forced to sit opposite of her.

"Stay there, I'll get us some more coffee," she said, getting up and going to the kitchen to make it.

Draco studied her features as she made the coffee. Her body was well curved; not too thin, but she wasn't big either. Her height was somewhat on the short side compared to other girls that he had gone out with before, but it didn't bother him. Which he found very peculiar. Nothing about her bothered him. Sure, she was sometimes bossy, and once she found a good book it was hard to separate her from it- an experience Draco had learned at the library that very day, but he found her cute when she was flustered. He was brought back to reality when Hermione appeared in front of him holding his coffee out for him to take. He took it, and took a small sip before he placed it on the table. Hermione sat down in her former spot and looked at Draco.

"Talk to me. Why?" she asked, sounding hurt, which Draco didn't understand.

"I didn't want that ugly Mark... I... I never wanted it," he said, holding back the emotions that were emerging. "My father, he said it would be an honour, so I did. But then... Now I hate it. Also, after you looked at it, those glances, I just needed it gone!" Hermione moved beside him and placed her hand over his shoulder, rubbing it as he let his emotions free, crying into his hands. He cursed his father for being such a bad parent, and he cursed himself for being stupid enough to fall for his father's traps. His father, to make Lucius seem more loyal to the Dark Lord, had used Draco to show that the whole Malfoy family was behind him. Draco had known that his father was using him, and yet he went along with it. That was just utter madness. "I... I know this *hiccup* wouldn't work, but *hiccup* I needed to try. To feel *hiccup* the pain I deserved." He turned to Hermione and buried his face into her chest, repeating how sorry he was to the world and that he shouldn't be alive.

"Shhhh. Don't worry Draco, it's in the past. You need to learn how to move on. No one deserves to die, remember that. Everyone deserves the chance to live life to the full."

"I know but... for me it's just I can't..."

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, you can do this. I believe in you. If you can't do it for yourself, then do it for me."

"For you?"

"I don't want to see you hurt yourself."

Draco nodded and looked up at her. She wiped away the tears that were falling down his cheeks and smiled at him.

"Come on, you should get some sleep."

She placed Draco's arm over her shoulder and pulled him up from the sofa like he was injured and wasn't able to walk- though he was technically injured. She placed her other arm around his waist and guided him back to his room. Once they got there, she lowered Draco on the bed ever so carefully. He gave her a smile of gratitude. She was about to leave the room when Draco called out to her.

"Please don't leave," he begged. "I..."

Hermione looked back at him and smiled.

"Alright, but let me get changed. And I think you should change out of your jeans," she said, and gave a small chuckle as she walked out of the room.

Draco smiled as he took off his jeans to change into his shorts, then he put on one of his old Quidditch sweaters. He knew that he was starting to get attracted to Hermione, but he tried to push it away because he knew that she would never feel the same way about him. He went back to bed when he was finished getting changed, and waited for Hermione to come. When she did, Draco sat up and froze at the sight. She was wearing a baggy sports top and short shorts, but the way that it looked on her really made her look beautiful. The neck of the top was hanging a bit low and showed a bit of her cleavage- something Draco tried not to stare at so obviously. Hermione noticed his stares and pulled at the shirt to hide her cleavage before she blushed. He shuffled a bit closer to the other side of the bed as Hermione came towards him and climbed into the bed. She turned to face him and smiled.

"Goodnight Draco," she said.

"Night Hermione," he replied.

Soon the two of them were asleep, and lying in each other's arms.

**A/N-** I love the couple Dramione oh how I wish JK did them instead of Ron/Hermione... :') please don't forget to review!


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N-** Huzzah! The next chapter is up and it's pretty long compared to my other chapters. I won't be updating again until next week or the week after D: sorry but hopefully the wait shall be worth it! Until next time! Oh and please review! :D I just adore reviews!

**Disclaimer-** As much as I want Harry Potter, I can never have it... :'(

**Credits-** Massive thank you yet again to QueenMinnie for BETA reading this chapter! She is amazing! 3

_**Chapter 9**_

A month passed, and before Hermione knew it, it was a week before Christmas. The past month had been busy. Not only was she taking care of Draco, but she was also working at St Mungo's and was forced to leave Draco at home by himself. During the first week or so when Hermione had to leave Draco alone, she would come back and always find him in his room, hugging his knees and muttering to himself with fresh cuts on his wrists. Every time this occurred, she would force Draco out of the bedroom and into the living room, where they would talk whilst drinking coffee. Things got better after that first week. Draco would occasionally cut himself whilst Hermione was gone, but it didn't happen very often anymore, which she was glad for.

Hermione entered her apartment after a long day at work and froze when she began to smell something burning from the kitchen. She entered the kitchen, and found Draco scratching his head, perplexed as he looked at a picture of a steak in the cookbook he was holding, and then back to his own burnt steak. Hermione started laughing, and Draco turned to look at her. He smiled at her, but then blushed when he realised she had seen his failed attempt at cooking.

"I uh... tried to cook?" he said, smiling awkwardly as Hermione started laughing more.

"It's all right, but you just... look so cute," she replied. Hermione then froze. Did she really just say that he looked _cute?_ She knew she was starting to develop some feelings for him, but she knew it wouldn't work; she was a Muggle-born and he was a pureblood. They were friends, and Draco would never imagine them being more than that… would he?

"Wow, cute am I?" he smirked.

"Oh shush! Look at the man who can't cook!" Draco blushed again when she said that.

"I just wanted to help. You're always helping me, and you're always working. So I wanted to help by making dinner. Since cooking didn't work, how about I take you out for dinner?"

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a disbelieving look.

"What? Can't a guy take a beautiful girl such as yourself out for dinner?"

Hermione blushed when Draco called her beautiful. The only other person that had called her that was Ron. Before she could reply to Draco's question he spoke again.

"Get changed, wear something nice, nothing too fancy. Be ready in leave in an hour." Then he left and went to his room.

XxX

Draco shut the door behind him, locked it and then started rummaging through his closet for something nice to wear. He knew he had to wear something with long sleeves to cover his bandaged arms. As he looked through his closet for an outfit, he couldn't take his mind off Hermione. _I __finally __got __to __ask __her __out! __Although, __I __really __wouldn't __call __this __an __actual __date... __I __am __simply __taking __her __out __to __dinner. __She __also __called __me __cute! __Does... __does __this __mean __she __might __have __some __romantic __feelings __for __me? __No, __no, __that __can't __be __right! __It __must __have __just __been __a __spur __of __the __moment __comment, __or __something. __But __maybe __I __could __get __her __to __like __me__…_

After what must have been at least half an hour, Draco finally decided on a long sleeved white polo shirt and dress pants. He then started to fix his hair, and began wondering what Hermione would wear...

XxX

Hermione stood in the living room after Draco left the room, shocked. Had Draco just asked her out on a date? Or was it really just repayment for all that she had done for him in the past month? A part of her wanted to believe that it really was a date, but another part felt like it was the latter. A tapping sound on the kitchen window interrupted her train of thought. It was Angel, Ginny's owl, so she opened the window and let the small owl inside. She opened the letter that it was carrying and immediately recognised Ginny's handwriting.

_Dear 'Mione,_

_I haven't seen you in ages! I hope you aren't busy on Christmas Eve, because there's going to be a huge dinner at the Burrow… even Charlie is coming! I really really miss you and we need to catch up! I know you've been busy, but come to the dinner! We have to talk! Also, Teddy is growing up so quickly! I know that Draco is staying with you, so bring him too if he wants too. Hope you aren't doing anything! *wink wink!*_

_Missing you loads,_

_Ginny_

_xxx_

Hermione smiled as she read the letter. It was true that she hadn't seen the Weasley's or Harry once this past month, but now she would definitely make time to go to the Christmas Eve dinner and she would bring Draco with her. There was no way she was going to leave him to celebrate Christmas alone. She got a sheet of parchment and a quill from one of the living room drawers and wrote her reply to Ginny.

_Hey Ginny,_

_It has been a while hasn't it? I've just been so busy with work and with looking after Draco, but we'll be sure to come. Yes, I'm definitely going to be bringing Draco with me! I just hope your family will be all right with that. We'll talk then, haha! I can't wait to see everyone, especially Teddy!_

_Missing you,_

_Hermione_

_xoxo_

Hermione reread her letter, making sure that she hadn't made any mistakes before giving it to Angel, who then flew away. With that done, she quickly remembered that she had forty-five minutes to get changed and meet Draco for dinner.

Once in her room, she sat on the floor staring at her closet for at least fifteen minutes, before finally decided on an outfit. She had chosen to wear a black strapless top with her grey skinny jeans. Then it was time for her hair. Hermione wasn't going to bother with a lot of make-up because she absolutely hated it. She decided on leaving her hair down and straighten it. She didn't have her hair straight often because it was always such a hassle and she never really had enough time in the morning to worry about her hair. But tonight would hopefully be a memorable occasion, and she wanted to look nice for Draco.

She looked at the mirror and checked her appearance. It had taken twenty minutes to tame her hair and straighten it, but now that it was, she had to admit to herself that she didn't look bad. With her hair straight, it reached just a few centimetres past her cleavage. She had applied just a touch of mascara to make her eyelashes look longer. Her heels gave her at least a few inches more of height, and she was sure that she was now almost as tall as Draco. Trying not to look as nervous as she felt, she peeked out of her door to see Draco already standing in the living room waiting, and he too looked nervous. She smiled to herself and walked out of the bedroom, Draco watching her as she entered. She tried not to laugh as Draco's mouth formed an 'o'. At least she knew that someone liked the way she looked right now.

XxX

Draco started at the woman in front of him. Was it really Hermione? She looked so beautiful with her hair straight, yet he preferred it when it was curly. It wasn't as frizzy as it had been in their first year; it had tamed down as the years passed and along with that, she had matured into a beautiful woman. How he hadn't been able to see it until now was beyond him. But now that he had realised it, Draco knew that he was falling for her and it worried him. Would she return those feelings for him? She was the only one keeping him alive now, and if he was to lose her... he had no idea what he would do. His train of thought was interrupted when Hermione spoke, her voice sounding so angelic to his ears.

"Are you alright?" she asked, wearing a worried expression on her face.

"Yeah, it's nothing. Let's go shall we?" he replied, holding out his hand for Hermione to take, which she did, and let him lead the way out of the apartment.

XxX

They walked down the streets of Muggle London with Draco leading the way. Surprise showed on Hermione's face as they walked, surprised that Draco had a good idea of where he wanted them to go.

After they had been walking around for about fifteen minutes, Hermione's feet started to hurt from the heels.

"Draco, where are we going?" she asked.

Draco smiled back at her and shook his head.

"It's a surprise," he said, "I apologize for the long walk, I could have apparated us there but…." he chuckled and then continued walking, holding Hermione's hand.

Keeping to his promise, they soon arrived at a Muggle restaurant. '_Zabini's __Snitch'_was its name. Hermione laughed at this and looked at Draco, who was also laughing. They walked up to the _maitre __d'_ standing at the front of the restaurant.

"I have a reservation for two under the name of Malfoy? Blaise's friend?" Draco said to the _maitre __d'_, as the man looked down at his reservation list.

"Oh yes, Mister Malfoy, two for the Balcony table?" he asked, confirming that the information was correct.

Draco nodded at this and then allowed the man to lead them to their table. Hermione gasped softly when she saw the table that the _maitre __d'_ had led them to.

There was a candle on the table and two chairs on opposite sides. The view from the balcony was what amazed Hermione the most. It was looking over the streets of London, showing the lights from nearby tall buildings, and cars could be heard from below them. She looked at Draco and gave him a surprised look. She was speechless. For once in her entire life, she didn't know what to say.

"Draco… how..." she tried to say, but Draco shook his head and motioned for her to sit. He pulled out a chair for her and she sat down. Once Draco sat opposite her, they looked at each. She looked into his eyes and saw that there was peace. He was genuinely at peace with himself for once in the whole month that he had stayed with her.

"Do you trust me?" he asked. Hermione didn't respond, as she was too caught up with looking at Draco. He realised this and smiled. He then repeated the question, which this time Hermione responded to.

"What? Sorry," she looked away and blushed.

"It's all right, I just asked if you trust me…"

"Trust you? Of course I do! Why?"

"Would you trust me to choose for you?"

"Well… I've never been here before, so yes I guess you can."

Draco smiled at this and Hermione looked back at him. _He __looks __so __much __better __now. __His __hair __is __really __nice __brushed __back __out __of __his __eyes. __His __eyes __are __gorgeous, __that __shade __of __blue __really __suits __him. __He's __not __completely __well, __but __he's __getting __there!_

_XxX_

Whilst Hermione was daydreaming and looking at Draco, he busied himself with looking through the menu. He already knew what to order, but with Hermione looking at him like this, he used the menu as an excuse to hide his rising blush. But just because he couldn't looking at Hermione, that didn't mean he wasn't able to think about her. _She __must __have __feelings __for __me, __she __must! __She's __been __studying __me __for __the __past __five __minutes, __and __that __smile __on __her __face __hasn't __faded. __I __may __actually __have __a __chance __with __her!_

A waiter came over a few minutes later and Draco ordered for both of them, including a bottle of the best champagne the restaurant had to offer. After the waiter took their menus they sat there and started talking about everything and nothing.

It was through this conversation that he learnt a lot more about Hermione. How at first she had planned to become an Auror along with Harry and Ron, but after the war, she had gotten sick of chasing after the bad guys and decided to become a healer instead. What surprised him the most about what Hermione had told him was that Ron and she had broken up soon after the war had ended, with Hermione doing the dumping. She believed that they weren't meant to be together and that they were better off being friends. Ron at first had been reluctant about it and wanted Hermione back, but he then started dating Lavender Brown, and they were now getting married on the last Sunday in January.

Draco told Hermione about his life as a kid and when Dobby was their house elf. Even though his father was absolutely horrible to the poor creature, Draco had absolutely adored him. Dobby was the only person he could talk to. When he found out that Harry had freed the elf, Draco was furious. His father was prone to unleashing his anger upon him, and Dobby was no longer there to comfort him. Narcissa was there for Draco whenever Lucius did beat him, but it wasn't the same.

When their meals finally arrived, they were both hungry and began to eat their dinner in silence, broken with the occasional question from Draco on how Hermione was finding her meal and the clatter of utensils on their plates.

XxX

Once Draco had payed the bill; quite insistently, which annoyed Hermione greatly, they started making their way back to the apartment. They were laughing at a joke Hermione had said as they walked into the apartment. Draco closed the door behind him, taking a quick glance at the clock as he did. It was close to midnight. Hermione also saw the time and suggested that they go to sleep.

"You'll... sleep with me right?" Draco asked nervously, pulling on the collar of his shirt.

"Draco, you ask me this every day. Of course I will! Just let me get changed first," Hermione said as she rushed her room to quickly get changed.

XxX

As soon as Hermione entered her room, she put up a quick silencing charm, and then started jumping up and down in glee. She thought about the time that she had just spent with Draco and she absolutely loved every second of it. Draco had given her the chance to listen to him talk about his childhood, something he was always reluctant to talk about whenever he had one of those 'nights'. _He __blushed __when __I __was __looking __at __him __tonight, __I __swear __he __was! __Oh __my __gosh! __Does __that __mean __he __likes __me __too? __Be __calm __Hermione, __and __get __changed __before __he __gets __suspicious._

Finally she calmed down and changed into her light blue sleeping shorts and top. She left her room and went to Draco's, only to find him already asleep on the bed in his sleepwear. She smiled at the sight, and then quietly joined him on the bed. She snuggled close next to him, close enough to smell him and minutes later, she joined him asleep.

Hours later, Hermione woke up to Draco screaming. She sat up quickly. Draco was sitting up in bed, shaking and covered in sweat. He was muttering things under his breath; his eyes were open wide and dark with fear.

"I didn't mean it, my Lord! I didn't mean to let them escape! NO, MOTHER!" Draco started screaming even louder. Hermione quickly pulled him closer to her and held him.

"Draco... calm down... he's dead, he's gone..." she said reassuringly. "He's gone forever." But that didn't seem to work. Draco suddenly stopped, pushed Hermione away and then fell off the bed and crawled towards the drawers. Hermione suddenly realised that he was going for a razor, and leapt onto him. "Draco, no!"

"I... it hurts too much!" he cried and continued to slowly crawl towards the table, even with Hermione's weight on his back. Just as he was able to open the table drawer, Hermione grabbed his wrists and pulled them behind his back.

"Draco, calm down!" she shouted, the authority in her voice obvious. Draco stopped struggling, his face slumped on the floorboards and he continued crying. She got up off Draco and pulled him up carefully before pulling him into a bear hug. "Draco, please stop. You haven't cut or had a nightmare for at least a few days now. You are doing good, you are recovering. You can keep going." She continued to hug him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She too was crying now, seeing Draco like this always made her break down. But now that she was starting to have such strong feelings for him, being sad whenever she saw Draco like this was an understatement- it was _killing _her.

For at least an hour they stayed there, Hermione hugging Draco as they both cried. Sometime during their crying, Hermione had found a way to get Draco to sit down and to get them both more comfortable. When Hermione realised that Draco had stopped crying, she looked up at him to confirm her suspicions and was proven right. His eyes were puffy and red from crying and there was some dried blood on his lips, which Hermione presumed was from biting his lip too hard.

"Are you okay now Draco?" she asked. He nodded in reply, not trusting his own voice. "Good... Let's get coffee." Before she could wipe away her tears, Draco grabbed her wrist and with his other hand, wiped away her tears for her.

"Thank you..." he looked at her and titled his head slightly as he inched closer to her face. He stopped only millimetres away from her, allowing her to pull back if she wanted. Hermione placed her arms around his neck and closed the remaining gap with her lips.

XxX

Draco closed his eyes as he kissed Hermione. It was filled with passion and need. Outlining the bottom of her lip, he asked for entrance. When Hermione granted it by opening her mouth, he plunged his tongue inside and explored, tasting what he could. After a few seconds he pulled back reluctantly and looked down at Hermione. Guilt suddenly filled him.

"Oh dear Merlin... Hermione... It was just..." he tried to say, but words were beyond him.

"Don't..." she replied, placing a finger on his lips. "I liked that, now let's get coffee." She pulled away from him and led him into the kitchen. He sat and watched Hermione whilst she was making coffee, and he decided to think back on their kiss. It was quick, but it was filled with passion. He really did like her a lot, and he knew that she had some feelings for him. But how strong were they?

Hermione came back minutes later holding two cups of coffee, and she handed one to him. He accepted it and nodded his thanks.

"Hermione... I am really sorry about that kiss, I wasn't in the right frame of mind-" he tried to say more but Hermione put her hand up to stop him.

"Listen," she said. "Let's not talk about that right now. What's more important is what you tried to do an hour ago."

Draco looked away and avoided Hermione's face.

"Draco. Look at me." Draco knew the tone well and knew that he should listen. He did, and looked up at her face. There wasn't pity like his mother, there was concern instead. "Now, talk to me. We had such a great night last night. I don't want you cutting."

"I... my dream. My mother was being tortured… he knew how much Mother meant to Lucius, and to me especially. Instead of torturing me to hurt Lucius, he tortured my mother, to hurt _both _of us. She still has scars from then, and I feel so guilty about it. The dream felt so real. I don't know… my pain just took over and I just went for it, not caring who was there... I'm sorry..." he looked down at his hands.

"It's all right," Hermione scooted closer to Draco and she pulled him in for a hug. "Just please don't do it again... You can probably guess but I have feelings for you. I don't know how strong they are, but they are there... I need you to stay alive, I need you Draco,"

He looked up at Hermione after hearing what she had just said. "I have feelings for you too... I... I was scared you wouldn't return them because... of what I am."

"You make it sound like you are a monster." Before Draco could reply, she put her hand up. "No, you need to get it through your head that you are a human being. Everyone makes mistakes." He raised an eyebrow and Hermione laughed. "Yes, even I make mistakes Draco, but we all have to forget about them."

"I know a way to make me forget," He smiled.

"What would-" but her sentence was cut short by Draco's lips crashing into hers. It took her a few seconds to realise what was happening, but once she did, she returned the kiss with as much passion as she could. Draco suddenly pushed her down so that she was lying down on the sofa with him on top. Their tongues were fighting for dominance: Draco soon let Hermione win and allowed her a chance to explore his mouth. He could feel Hermione's hands running through his hair and then down to his shoulders, sending chills down his spine. They broke the kiss for a quick breath and then Draco started trailing kisses down her neck. He bit her skin, not too hard that it would hurt, but hard enough to leave a mark. He started doing this all over her neck, wanting to leave marks, showing people that she was his and his alone. He heard Hermione let out a moan and it just made him more eager.

"Draco... Bedroom..." He looked up at Hermione, smiled and followed her orders. He got up off her, and then he lifted Hermione up off the sofa into his arms. He kissed her fiercely and pulled her thighs around him so that they wrapped around his waist. Not breaking the kiss, Draco carried them both to his room, closing the door behind him with his foot before placing Hermione on the bed.

"Are... you sure about this?" he asked. "If we continue... I don't know if I can stop."

Hermione smirked at his comment and pulled him in for a kiss. When they broke the kiss there was a big smile on Draco's face.

"I take that as a yes?" Hermione just answered by pulling him into another fierce kiss. While they were kissing, Draco's hands worked their way to the hem of her top and lifted it above her chest. They stopped kissing for Draco to quickly remove her top and for Hermione to pull his sweater off, before they resumed kissing. He let out a moan when Hermione ran her hands across his chest and pinched his nipples. He slowly left Hermione's lips and continued where he had left off on the sofa, his hands squeezing her boobs and pinching her erect nipples.

"Draco!" she cried out. "Oh gods! Hurry up already and fuck me!" He smirked at her enthusiasm, but didn't listen. To tease her, he slowly took the rest of his clothing off, and did the same to Hermione, removing her shorts and knickers. He rubbed his erection against her core and started nibbling on her breasts. "Draco put it in already!"

He looked up at her and smirked. "Someone's feisty, aye?"

"I swear I will hex you to the next century if you keep teasing me!"

He laughed at Hermione's threat but then finally did as he was told. Holding his erection, he guided it to her entrance and thrust himself inside. He heard Hermione moan and call out his name as he pushed inside of her. "Oh Merlin, you're tight!" He started thrusting, slowly at first but then went faster and faster. One of his hands was playing with Hermione's clitoris, the other playing with her breasts. He could feel Hermione's hands travelling across his chest and playing with his nipples. Then suddenly, her hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him in for a kiss. "Hermione... Oh Gods!"

Hermione pulled back from Draco's lips and smiled at him. He was making her feel so good... So _alive,_this was something she hadn't felt in a while. As Draco thrust deeper into her, she felt herself reaching her climax. Draco seemed to sense this and thrust even faster, causing Hermione to moan even more and shout out his name.

"Draco... Merlin, you're going to make me cum!" she shouted and pulled Draco back for another kiss.

"Cum for me Hermione, I want you to cum before I do," Draco whispered into her ear. He thrust into her as deep as he could. This caused Hermione to shout his name out loud, gripping onto the bed sheets as she reached her climax. Just as she reached hers, Draco also reached his and she could feel him spilling his seed inside her.

"Hermione!" Draco shouted as he spilled his seed into her and then collapsed on top of her. He quickly moved beside her to avoid crushing her, and they looked at each other. Hermione smiled and snuggled closely to Draco's chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and they both soon fell asleep in each other's arms.

**A/N-**Please review! Love you guys!


	10. Chapter 10

_****_**A/N-** Here is the next chapter! :D I hope you enjoy it! Please don't forget to rate! 3

**Disclaimer-** I don't own Harry Potter... If I did Fred would never have died .

**Note- **My BETA reader QueenMinnie wasn't able to BETA read this as she is out at the moment, so I apologize for any mistakes .

_**Chapter 10**_

Days passed quickly for both Hermione and Draco, who finally admitted to each other their feelings and started going out. Soon it was the day of the Christmas Eve party and Hermione was busy getting ready in their bedroom (which is Hermione's room). She didn't know what to wear for the dinner and she was a nervous wreck. She hadn't seen the Weasleys in a long time- save for Ginny and today was going to be a big dinner. She had to wear something nice! But then after staring at her closet for at least another half an hour and being asked by Draco to hurry up, she ended up choosing to wear her blue one-shoulder top and black skinny jeans with her black ballet flats. She had her hair tied up in a bun with few strands of hair on the sides. She got her jacket and let the room.

XxX

Draco was waiting outside in the living room for Hermione. He was changed and ready and he didn't really understand why it was taking so long for Hermione to find something and get changed. When he suddenly heard Hermione's door open, he saw Hermione standing there wearing a blue one-shoulder top that matched well with her jeans and shoes. He smiled at her and held out a hand for her.

"Took you long enough." he teased. "By the time we get there the Weasels will have eaten everything."

"We aren't late Draco." she replied. "In fact we are..." she took a quick look at the clock in the kitchen indicating that it was 18:45. "Fifteen minutes early if we leave now!"

"Well I guess we can wait fifteen minutes couldn't we before leaving?" he purred into her ear, nibbling on it. But then Hermione giggled but then pulled away from Draco, looking him in the face trying to look serious but was failing.

"No, not now because if we do not go now, we might as well not go at all!"

"You know I wouldn't mind that," he gave her a flirty wink.

"As much as I like you, I can't miss this dinner, I have barely seen them for ages now. Let's go shall we?" This time it was Hermione holding out her hand for Draco to hold, which he did. "Side-apparation, you're alright with that aren't you?"

"Of course!"

Suddenly Draco's surroundings changed and instead he was surrounded by grass, and in front of him was the Burrow. Hermione motioned for them to go towards the Burrow but Draco froze with fear suddenly taking over. What would they say when they say him? Apparently, according to Hermione, only Ginny knew that he was with Hermione, but even she didn't know they were a couple. What would they say? Would they hate him for all that he did? The fear in his eyes must've been obvious to Hermione because she pulled him to her and looked up at his face to give him a reassuring kiss.

"Everything will be alright Draco. Remember what I said. It's all the past." she said. Draco smiled as their kiss ended and he looked down at her.

"What would I do without you?" he said as he kissed her forehead.

"Oh I don't know... But I'm glad I'm helping you." she let out a scream of surprise as Draco lifted her in his arms and gave her a massive hug.

"I don't know either. I'm so glad!" then he dropped Hermione carefully on the floor. "Lead the way." he said, opting Hermione to go first, which she did, holding Draco's hand tightly so that he would not suddenly back out.

As soon as they reached the front door it opened before Hermione could knock and she came face to face with Molly Weasley who squealed and gave her a bear-crushing hug.

"Hermione dear! It's been too long! Oh gosh how have you been? Are you eating well? You look so thin! Don't worry though! I'll make sure to fix that!" she said.

"Ahh Molly thank you, I've been well... I just wanted you to meet Draco..." Hermione then looked up at Draco who was looking very nervous. He pulled on the collar of his shirt and held a hand out for Molly to shake.

"Uhh... Hello there Mrs. Weasley... It's um... Good to see you..." he said, trying not to stutter and keep the nervousness out of his voice but he was failing epically at the latter. Molly looked up at him and straight away he could tell that she disliked him. He was surprised however when Molly took his hand and shook it.

"Ahh it's good to see you. Please you two come in, it must be getting cold." she moved back so that Hermione and Draco could go through the door.

The house was filled with laughter and joy, totally different to the parties that the Malfoy family held at their Manor. At the Manor there was chatter and laughter, but it was nothing compared to what Draco was seeing right now. People were standing around laughing, dancing and there were two kids crawling around on the floor laughing. But then all that stopped when Draco entered the Burrow and all eyes fell on him. The only noise left were the children that were still playing around. Draco pulled on the collar of his shirt nervously and smiled nervously at everyone.

"Alright everyone, dinner will be ready in a bit!" Molly shouted- though it probably wasn't needed due to the silence, but she shouted anyways.

Harry went up to Draco and held his hand out.

"It's good to see you well Malfoy," he said. Draco shook the hand and smiled.

"Thanks Potter." He replied. Then Harry turned to Hermione and gave her a hug.

"It's great to see you 'Mione, it's been too long."

"Mmm yes Harry it has. How have you been?"

While Hermione and Harry were talking, a hand grabbed Draco's wrist and pulled him to the sofa that was in the living room. He looked at the person in front of him. It was Ron Weasley and he was looking at him like he was ready to kill.

"Malfoy…What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with Hermione." He replied.

"BULLSHIT!" Ron stood up and everyone froze and looked at them, even Harry and Hermione, who quickly saw the anger in Ron's eyes and ran to Draco's side. "'Mione! Are you… What's this git doing here?"

"Ron! He's my…" Hermione froze and didn't know what to say. Should she tell people that they were going out? Draco looked down at her and smiled at her. He knew that she was unsure of how people would react if they found out they were dating, she could choose whether to tell them or not and it wouldn't bother him just as long as he had her still.

"He's your what 'Mione?" Ron asked, his voice sounding threatening.

"My friend and he's a patient of mine."

"Patient? Aww is the little ferret sick?"

"Now Weasel bee you better keep your mouth shut before I hex you!" Draco shouted and tried to initiate a fight with him if Hermione didn't pull him back.

"Draco! Let's go outside shall we?" she pulled him back and didn't give him a chance to answer, instead she pulled him back and outside into the back garden near the lake. There was an oak tree just in front of the lake and they sat there. Draco leaned back on the tree and pulled Hermione to her chest. "I am so sorry about Ron… he's… very sensitive when it comes to me going out with people…"

"And I guess that boy being me just makes it worse?" he suggested.

"They don't know about us though,"

"Yes they don't but it is me, they hate me." There was disappointment in his voice and he slumped back. "I'm sorry but I don't think I should stay."

"No! I want to spend Christmas Eve with my boyfriend and second family! I want us to have our first Christmas together…" she stood up and pulled Draco up with him, hugging him tightly. He looked down at Hermione and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

"I'm so glad I met you." He rested his forehead on hers and smiled.

"And I am glad that I met you. Now I think we should go back." They smiled at each other and then kissed each other again. Draco held onto Hermione's hand and they walked back to the Burrow again.

XxX

Draco's time at the Burrow wasn't that bad, he was interrogated by most of the Weasley household, save for Ginny, Molly and Arthur. It seemed that by the end of the night, everyone was fine with Draco being around, except Ron that is, and to show how irritated he was, him and Lavender left early.

Hermione waved at the rest of the family as her and Draco were about to leave. But then Ginny pulled them back and brought them back to the sofa, where everyone was sitting.

"'Mione! Now that Ron and Lavender are gone, tell us the truth…" she said.

"The truth?" Hermione sounded nervous and looked around the living room. Everyone was looking at them. Harry was carrying Teddy on his lap, looking at her and Draco occasionally. Bill and Charlie were looking at them with smiles on their faces. Percy it seems was just looking at them for the sake of not feeling left out. Molly and Arthur were nowhere to be seen- Hermione assumed that they were just in the kitchen.

"We aren't as stupid as Ron is; something is going on between you two."

Draco looked down at Hermione and smiled at her.

"It's alright…" he said and kissed her on the forehead.

Hermione sighed and held Draco's hand as se spoke.

"Alright, I guess you know we are going out now?"

"Well it's pretty obvious!" Charlie nudged Ginny to stop being so loud.

"Well yes…"

Ginny was about to speak again when Charlie spoke.

"What's that?" he said, pointing to Draco's left forearm, where the dark mark was (covered in scars but it was still there). Draco realised what Charlie had been pointing to and covered his forearm with his hand. "Don't hide it. I saw it." The tone of control was obvious in Charlie's voice and Draco knew he had to listen. He slowly pulled his hand away and showed him the Dark Mark. "So you were branded." His voice was filled with disgust.

"Charlie listen! He's changed!" Hermione pleaded. Charlie stood up and looked at Hermione. "He's changed and I don't know if you can see it right now. But I guarantee you that he has. I'll bet my life on it."

Draco looked down at Hermione and smiled. He really really liked her and he knew that he was falling more and more for her as the days passed by. Charlie stood up in front of him and poked his finger at his chest.

"I trust Hermione's judgement but you better treat her well." he said, his voice was filled with warning.

Draco nodded, and held his hand out. "I'll protect her with my life; you can trust me on that." Charlie shook it and nodded at him, before leaving and making his way to the kitchen. "Well Hermione... We should go now..." he looked down at her and she nodded in agreement. After saying his goodbyes to everyone and shaking their hands they left the Burrow and kept walking until they passed the apparation wards where they then apparated back to Hermione's apartment.

As they stumbled back into the apartment, Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione and pulled her onto the sofa. "I hope that dinner didn't tire you out." he nibbled on her earlobe and chuckled. "The night is not done yet."

Hermione stood up and looked at Draco.

"What? But it's..." she looked at the clock and sighed. "It's 11 o'clock already!"

"Don't worry... At least another hour please babe?" he started pouting; he knew it always worked on her, and it did. Hermione sighed and shook her head slightly but then smiled and nodded at Draco.

"I hate it when you do that. I can't resist it..."

Draco stood up also and went closer to Hermione, so close that he could feel her breathing. "No one can resist me..." He closed the gap between their lips and kissed her passionately. He brought his hands around her back and pushed her closer to him until it was only the thin layer of clothes that stopped him from having skin-to-skin contact with her. He pulled back quickly for a breath before he kissed her again. When they broke the kiss again, Draco looked down at her and smiled. "Let's go." Before Hermione could even say anything, he took her wand apparated them out of the apartment again.

XxX

Hermione held onto Draco tightly as she felt him apparate. The next thing she knew, her surroundings changed from her living room to Muggle London. They were standing outside a place called _The__Welsh__Dragon__._She looked up at Draco and he nodded at her.

"Is this a Muggle club?" she asked him

"Yeah, it's owned by a wizard though. To Muggles, they think the name is just special, poor things don't know that there really are dragons." he shook his head and then pulled Hermione inside.

The loud music was the first thing that got Hermione's attention when they entered the club. It was muggle music and currently _Last__Night__by__Ian__Carey_was being played and people were dancing to it and drinking. There were people all over the place and on the dance floor, the women were grinding against other blokes or girls and there were guys trying to hit on other people- whether it was guys or girls. The club was perfect for anyone and everyone. On one side of the club, there would be girls that were half-naked pole dancing, and on the other side of the club there would be topless guys doing pretty much the same thing. Hermione smiled and looked at Draco.

"You come here a lot?" she asked, pulling him to the bar.

"Only been once, it was around sometime during the beginning of the year. Blaise and I were bored and so he took me to this club. Never been since..." Draco didn't finish, not wanting to turn such a good night into something depressing. He called the bar tender over and ordered for two firewhiskeys.

"For a muggle club they have Firewhiskey?"

"Like I said, the owner is a wizard, so they'd obviously have it!" he handed the money over to the bar tender as he came back with two glasses of firewhiskeys. He held his up. "Cheers. To us,"

"To us," Hermione held hers up and they clinked their glass together before taking a gulp of their drink down. Hermione suddenly felt relaxed as the firewhiskey took effect, burning her throat at first before it sunk down to her stomach. "Let's go dance!"

That was exactly what she and Draco did. They danced until there were seconds left until Christmas. When that came, they just stopped and held each other closely. Draco rested his head on hers and smiled.

_10_

Draco held onto Hermione's chin and pulled it up so that she was looking at him.

_9_

His thumb traced around her jaw line.

_8_

He placed some hair that was on her face behind her ear.

_7_

Hermione grew closer to him as if to kiss him but he pushed her back softly.

_6_

One of Draco's hands traced her shoulder down to her waist.

_5_

He smirked at her impatient expression and told her to wait.

_4_

His face neared hers ever so slowly.

_3_

He stopped when his lips were just millimetres from hers.

_2_

His breathing became shallow and he started to become impatient, but knew he should wait.

_1_

One more second...

_0_

He closed the remaining between then and kissed her passionately, putting his tongue inside her mouth, explore every place he could, almost like he was searching for somewhere he hadn't explored already. Then Hermione wrapped her arms behind his neck and pulled him closer, her hands running through his now messed up hair. She whimpered when Draco pulled back and ended the kiss. "Merry Christmas Hermione..."

"Merry Christmas Draco..."

**A/N-** Well here we are folks! I don't know if I'm going to end this soon or what but I do know how i"m going to end it. Any ideas though that you guys want to input in? Credits shall be given whenas appropriate of course but if you have any ideas you think should be in this story please leave a message in the reviews or PM me :D Love you guys and thank you! :D


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N-** Here is another chapter! Thank you to those that have reviewed so far! But don't forget I really would love if people would could tell me if they want anything to be added onto the story so I could improve it or as such :D

**Disclaimer-**JK Rowling owns the world of Harry Potter, not me

**Note-**My BETA reader QueenMinnie was not able to beta read this so any mistakes such as spelling and grammar I apologize for in advance.

_**Chapter 11**_

Draco woke up the next day to find Hermione snuggled close to him, both of them were stark naked and he chuckled, remembering the events that occurred last night and that morning. After their Christmas kiss, they had danced for a bit longer until they apparated back to the apartment and made love. Just the thought of having sex with Hermione made him hard again and he tried to think of something else. He was suddenly distracted however by the tapping by his window. Turning, he saw that it was an owl- his mother's more specifically. As carefully as he could, he moved out of the bed without waking up Hermione and opened the window to let the owl in. As soon as the window opened, the owl flew in and landed on his shoulder.

"Vix, hello there." he said as he pulled the letter of Vix's leg. "Let's go to the kitchen, don't want to distract Hermione now do we?" After he quickly pulled on a pair of shorts, he left the room as quietly as he could- with Vix still on his shoulder and he went to the kitchen. Rummaging through all the kitchen drawers until he found where Hermione kept her owl treats, which were running low. _Note __to __self, __must __buy __more __owl __treats._ Then he opened the kitchen window and waited for Vix to fly away, but he didn't. Instead he just looked at Draco. "I take it I'll need to reply now hmm?" He quickly opened up the letter and instantly recognised the writing as his mother's.

_Draco honey,_

_It has been at least a month since I last saw you. How are things? Is Hermione treating you well? She is a really nice lady and I believe that she can't help you were I could not. I was wondering if I could stop by today and have dinner with you. I really wish to see you dear, it has been too long. I hope to hear from you soon and see you later if I can visit._

_Love_

_Mother_

_xxx_

Draco read the letter through and slapped himself on the head for being so stupid as to forget to keep in contact with his mother for the past month. _Dear __Merlin __Draco __you __idiot! __She__'__ll __never __forgive __you __for __making __her __worry __so __much!_ He grabbed a parchment and quill from the living room before and wrote his reply quickly, saying that he would owl again later to find out if they had plans and if she could come over to visit. As soon as Vix got the letter off Draco, he flew away through the kitchen window. He heard a yawn behind him and saw Hermione walking into the kitchen in his sweater and shorts.

"What are you doing up?" he asked as he began to make coffee for the both of them.

"The bed felt empty without you." she replied, stifling a yawn.

"Sorry I woke you then,"

"It's alright," he felt Hermione's hands on his waist as he attempted to make coffee with the coffee machine- but was failing epically, this caused a giggle to erupt from Hermione, whose hands were now travelling up his chest. "Trying to make coffee are we?"

"Yes but," he swore as water sprayed all over his chest. "Oh for Merlin's sake! Work will you?" Then he suddenly felt Hermione's hands force him to turn and face her.

"The machine doesn't like you much does it?" she asked, while her fingers trailed along his shoulder to his collar bone.

"Stupid Muggle technology..." he was going to saw more but Hermione's hands cupped his chin and pulled him in for a kiss.

"We could go out to a cafe instead." She hugged him and rested her head snugly into his chest.

They stood there in utter silence for half an hour, ignoring the time and just appreciated the time they had, together, in each other's arms. Finally when they broke off from each other, they gave each other a smile and then Draco went to his room to get changed, and Hermione went to her room to do the same thing.

XxX

Hermione and Draco walked down the streets of London to their favourite cafe spot. Though there was an abandoned alleyway that Hermione could apparate them to that wasn't too far from the cafe, they both decided that it was best to walk there, though it would be a half-hour walk. They both knew that it was good to walk around and it always gave them a sense of peace and showed the muggle world through their own eyes and not just through books.

Once they arrived they sat in their usual spot with their coffee and started talking.

"Hermione, I just wanted to tell you something..." Draco said. "My mother owled me this morning and asked me if she could visit your apartment later for dinner? I said I would owl her with a reply of saying whether she could or not and I wanted to ask you since it is your apartment."

"Of course!" Hermione replied. "But oh gosh... It's your mother! What would she like? Merlin's beard I don't know what to cook! Would she even like what I would cook?" she started rambling on and on and worrying about things that Draco found to be meaningless. As a way of stopping Hermione from worrying and rambling too much and catching people's attention, he kissed her. It took a few seconds for Hermione to respond but then she did and they quickly pulled back. "Draco I'm so sorry! I ramble a lot..."

"It's no worries. My mother isn't picky like my father," he scowled as he said the word 'father'. "I was wondering... Could I tell her about us? She's my mother and I really think she should know..."

"Of course, I see no reason why we shouldn't, besides the Weasley's don't seem to mind... Well save for Ron but he doesn't know..."

"It doesn't matter..." he pulled closer to Hermione and kissed her lightly on the lips.

XxX

Hermione and Draco held hands as they left the cafe and were laughing. The time they had spent at the cafe drinking, talking and just relaxing overall was memorable... Well if Hermione was going to be honest, every single moment she spent with Draco was memorable. _I __think __I__'__m __falling __for __him __badly. __I __just __can__'__t __imagine __my __life __without __him __now... __It __would __seem __so __empty..._ She looked up at Draco to realise that he had asked her something. Embarrassed, she asked him to repeat his question.

"I asked if you wanted to quickly stop by the library quickly or something." he asked, looking at her with a worried expression on his face. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright Draco, don't worry." she replied quickly, expelling any worry that he had. "I don't know if it would be open though... It's Christmas."

"It is I checked it when we went there last. So do you?"

"Yes please! I saw this really good book there and I really want to borrow it!" he chuckled at what she said. "But can we apparate there? I think we should go home soon so I can have time to cook and so you can owl your mother about tonight."

"Alright, that sounds good." They walked down the streets, avoiding the people and soon they were in the abandoned alley were Draco side apparated with Hermione to the back of the library building where no one would be able to see them.

As soon as they arrived at the library, Hermione started walking around the place quickly, scanning through the shelves of books and trying to find the one that she had found before.

"Hermione, I need to go toiler quickly, so I'll see you okay?" Draco said as he stopped Hermione and gave her a quick hug, his hands wrapped around her waist.

"Sure, I won't be too long I hope..." she chuckled a bit at her reply and then continued walking around the shelves looking for that book while Draco left the library.

XxX

As soon as Draco left the library, he made his way quickly to the back of the library and pulled out Hermione's wand. He has quickly taken her wand when they hugged and replaced it with a stick that looked similar to her actual wand. While holding onto the wand, he apparated to Diagon Alley. Most stores were close due to it being Christmas Day, but the store that he planned on visiting was open, he made sure it was open, even if it was only for him so that he would be able to pick up his delivery.

He stood outside _"__Florence__'__s __Jewels__" _and knocked on the door with a special tune and he heard the door give a _'__click__' _signalling that it was open. He entered inside and a wizard suddenly apparated in front of him.

"Ahh Misssster Malfoy..." it was Florence, the owner of the store and one of his good friends. He bowed as he greeted Draco. "I wassss wondering when you would come," he voice always sounded like a snake and his pronunciation of the 'S' was always long.

"Florence, have you got the order?" Draco demanded, he knew he didn't have long before Hermione would start getting suspicious and that would kill the surprise.

"Yesss sssir I do. I ssshall be back." he watched as Florence went to behind the counter displaying the variety of jewellery that was available and went into the back room. He later came back holding a black heart shaped jewellery case and handed it to Draco. He opened the case quickly and examined its content. Once satisfied, he smiled at Florence, gave him the money, with a bit of interest.

"Thanks Florence, have a good day." He left the shop and apparated back to the back of the library building, before slipping the case into his coat pocket and entering the library. He walked through the library, peeking at each book aisles to look for Hermione but he soon found her sitting on one of the sofas in the reading corner. Quietly sneaking through the seats until he was behind Hermione, he quickly covered her eyes and mouth and caused her to jump. "It's me, don't worry." he whispered into her ear and nibbled on it. "Sorry I took long, are you ready?" he took his hands away from Hermione's eyes and mouth and walked around until he was facing her.

"You nut! You scared me," she replied, lightly smacking him on the shoulder with the book she was holding.

"It's only a joke, well anyways are you ready?" he held out her hand for Hermione, which she took and he pulled her up from the sofa and brought her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her, and he quickly slipped her wand back into her pocket and took the stick that he had replaced the wand with before.

"Of course, I'll just borrow this." she broke the hug, grabbed Draco's wrist with her free hand and dragged him along with her to the counter to borrow the book quickly.

XxX

Hermione and Draco held hands as they left the library, Hermione holding tightly onto the book she borrowed as her and Draco made their way to the back of the library to apparate. She pulled her wand out and apparated to her apartment.

As soon as they arrived in the living room of her apartment, she placed the book on the living room table.

"I'm going to start cooking now. You should owl your mother; tell her to come at around 7? That gives me just about three hours to cook and get ready," she asked, and placed a kiss on Draco's cheek.

"No worries, do you have an owl?" he asked.

"Yup, she should be in her cage in the room. There are also parchments and quills that you can use on the desk."

"Thanks, when I'm done, I'll clean the apartment a bit."

"That would be helpful." then Hermione left and went to the kitchen to start cooking.

Draco made his way into their room and straight to her desk, which was in front of the window was organised, with the piles of paper stacked together in one side and there was a cup full of quills, and a lampshade at the corner of the bed. Then just beside the desk was a smaller table where the owl she had been talking about was placed. He walked towards the desk and quickly wrote the details about the dinner later to his mother before he opened the owl's cage and gave it the letter.

"Send this to Narcissa Malfoy please." he told the owl and opened the window and watched it fly away into the horizon.

**A/N-** I really don't know what to think about this chapter, part of me feels disappointed in it... Opinions? Please don't forget to review! Love goes to the reviewers :3 And I have a question. I'm still new ish to this so like on my Doc Manager (Where I upload my chapters) if I delete my other chapters, would it affect the story? (Like if I delete CHapter 1 from my Doc Manager, would it be gone from this story? :S)


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N-**Hello! Here is a new chapter everyone! I hope you will like it! I know that it is a little bit short but I promise that the next chapter will be longer than this! Please don't forget to review!

**Disclaimer-**I don't own the World of Harry Potter... Though I wish I owned Draco :3

**Note-**My BETA reader QueenMinnie was not able to beta read this chapter, I have proof read it but if there are any mistakes, I apologize for them in advance!

_**Chapter 12**_

Draco was helping Hermione set the table when he saw Hermione's fireplace light up in green flames and his mother appeared. She wiped away the soot on her robes and stepped out. As soon as she caught a glimpse of Draco she ran up to him and hugged him tightly.

"Oh son! It's been too long!" she cried and she hugged Draco tightly. She soon pulled back and wiped away the tears that were threatening to escape. "I am glad that you are feeling better." Then she looked over Draco's shoulder and saw Hermione setting the food out on the plates. "Hermione dear!" She walked up to Hermione and grabbed the plate of food that she was carrying, even after Hermione's objections. "Let me carry it! It is the least I can do for the sudden request."

They all sat together on the dining table, Draco was sitting next to Hermione and Narcissa sat just across from him. They ate in silence, but it wasn't because things were uncomfortable, it was because they were enjoying the food. During their dinner, Draco would shoot glances at Hermione and would brush his hand 'accidentally' to hers whenever they thought that Narcissa wasn't looking. When they finished dinner, Hermione quickly collected the plates and set them on the sink. Then she quickly made an excuse that she was going to the toilet and excused herself, allowing Draco and Narcissa to have some well deserved time alone together.

XxX

Narcissa sat on the sofa next to Draco as they talked, catching up on things they had missed. She smiled as Draco talked to her. She knew that his son was getting better, he looked more alive and his eyes were filled will life. He even occasionally laughed at the stories he talked to her about, especially about the times that and Hermione would spend together alone. It was then that she realised that his son had feelings for Hermione and she knew that he was falling in love with her, though Draco probably wouldn't admit it yet that he was in love, she knew the signs. His face would brighten up whenever he spoke about Hermione, whether it was when she was helping him during one of his 'nights' or just them two walking through the park together. She didn't realise that she was crying until Draco had stopped talking and asked her what was wrong. Realising this, she quickly wiped away the tears and gave Draco a hug.

"I am so glad that you are feeling better and I am glad that you have found someone in your life." she said as she hugged him. She pulled back and looked at his shocked face, which she knew straight away was questioning how she had figured out his feelings for Hermione. "I'm your mother Draco, you look so much happier every time you mention her name and talk about her. Tell me, does she return these feelings?"

Draco smiled at her and nodded.

"Oh I'm so glad!"

"Mother, we are dating..." Draco whispered.

"Oh that is absolutely wonderful news Draco! I am really happy! I think you two would be absolutely perfect together!" She hugged him again quickly, as she was hugging Draco, she saw Hermione arrive in the living room. She pulled back from Draco and got up, giving Hermione a hug as well. "Thank you so much Hermione," she whispered into her ear. "You have saved Draco. I am so glad that you two are together..." Hermione pulled back from her and gave her a nod.

"It's my pleasure Mrs. Malfoy." she replied.

"Oh please, call me Narcissa,"

"Oh okay... Um... Narcissa well your son is just perfect," Narcissa smiled at her comment. She knew that Hermione wasn't just saying it for the sake of her being there, she meant it. "I'm glad you gave me a chance to help him,"

"I believed that you could, I really didn't want him to lose his memories... I hoped that it would make him stronger. Well with your help I guess it had, well I must go now." she walked back to the living room and gave Draco a hug and a quick goodbye. "I must apologize for suddenly just leaving but I really must. Oh Draco dear, you and Hermione will be able to come to our New Year's Party right?"

Draco looked at Hermione who smiled and nodded.

"Oh that is wonderful! Everyone shall be glad to see you alright again Draco!" Then Narcissa got inside the fireplace and flood away.

XxX

As soon as Narcissa was gone, Draco stood up from the sofa and pulled Hermione to his chest. He heard he giggle a bit when he started kissing her neck, leaving marks.

"It's Christmas Draco, I bought you a present." she said and quickly pulled away, but not before she grabbed his wrist and dragged him to his room. "Stay here," she instructed and she left the room. Draco sat there for a few minutes and pulled out the box that he had bought at Diagon Alley that day and opened it, checking that the contents were still intact. Minutes later he saw the door open again and Hermione entered holding a rectangle box, but that wasn't the only thing she had, behind her was a big box that was as tall as her but not that wide. Hermione had cast a levitating spell on it. Draco had a shocked face and looked down at the box he was holding. It felt like nothing compared to what Hermione had, she had _two_presents for him. _I __hope __she __likes __my __present... _He walked up to Hermione and carried the massive box and carefully placed it on the bed. "Thank you Draco, here I think you should open this first." she smiled as she handed him the rectangle box that she had been holding.

Draco carefully opened it and opened the box. He gasped as he opened the box and saw what was inside. He pulled out the wand and the box automatically fell to the floor.

"My wand... 10 inches, Hawthorn wood with unicorn hair core..." he muttered to himself as he held the wand an examined it. He looked up at Hermione, tears threatening to escape his eyes. "Thank you..."

"You're welcome, I trust that you won't do anything stupid. But that isn't my present, well not really."

He looked at the box that was lying on the bed and smiled to himself, he didn't deserve Hermione and yet here they were, together for their first Christmas. Oh how life was looking good. He shook his head at Hermione however and held out the box that he was holding. "Open your present first. I hope you like it."

Hermione laughed and took the box Draco held out and she opened the box. The expression on her face showed that she was shocked and loved the present, and it made Draco happy knowing that his girlfriend loved his present. Hermione kept looking up at him and then back down to the contents of the box. "How... Oh my gosh Draco... How..." She walked towards Draco, carefully placed the box onto the bed and hugged him. "Draco! it's beautiful! I love the colour!"

He smiled as Hermione hugged him and he returned it. "I'm glad you like it, I was hoping you wouldn't mind if it was in my house colours," He broke the hug but held her waist close to him and he rested his head on her forehead.

"I'm going to be honest, I've always liked the colour green a bit more then red, but I guess being a Gryffindor it's expected that I would like marron and gold more, but I don't."

"I'm glad, you're a Slytherin at heart then I take it?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm still a stubborn lion."

"A lion in bed," he smirked and she pulled back, playfully smacking him on the chest.

"Open your real present." she pointed at the box and had a smile on her face.

Draco put his hands up in surrender and went to the box that was lying on the bed and ripped apart the Christmas wrapping on his present. The cover of the box showed a picture of an electro-acoustic guitar, with a sort of peachy colour body and maple neck. Draco quickly opened the box and pulled out the guitar carefully, examining it and running his fingers across its neck. He looked at Hermione and a huge grin was plastered onto his face. "First my wand and now this... How can I..."

"Don't, because that necklace is beautiful. I saw how you would play with an air guitar whenever you heard songs on the radio that had a guitar playing and you thought I didn't see." Draco blushed as Hermione spoke. "Harry knows how to play the guitar; you could ask him to teach you. I tried to learn but... I was never really good."

"Thank you..." He dropped the guitar carefully on the bed and went to Hermione, kissing her and running his hand down her back and through her hair. They left the room- still locked in a kiss and made it to Hermione's room which was presents free and made love there.

**A/N-** Hope you enjoyed! Please don't forget to Review! I write faster if I get reviews cus I get more motivated! :D


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N-** Another chapter already! :D Well I was in a good mood today and well so I wrote a lot today :) It's not really as long as I hoped and this chapter, I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure on what to think about it. I guess this was more of just a filler chapter but I hope you guys will still enjoy it!

**Disclaimer-**HP=Not my property

**Note-**My BETA reader QueenMinnie was not able to read this, as mentioned before, any mistakes are my fault and I apologize in advance!

_**Chapter 13**_

Hermione held onto Draco's hand tightly as they walked down the grand stairs of Malfoy Manor. It was the New Years Dinner Party that Narcissa had invited them to, and she felt obligated to come as she had dragged Draco to the Christmas Eve dinner at the Weasley's. There were crowds of people below them, talking to each other and holding glasses of wine. As they walked down the stairs, she saw conversations ceasing and faces turned to their direction. She tried to hide a blush when Draco let go of her hand and wrapped a hand behind her waist and pulled her to him.

"Don't worry," he whispered into her ear. "It's alright, I'm here..."

She nodded and remembered what Draco had told her before they made their way to Malfoy Manor for the party. The people there would test her; try to insult her, especially about her blood. She had to prove that she was worth being Draco's girlfriend; she had to be strong, and withstand their insults and questions. As well as that she had to look presentable, hence the reason why her and Draco had spent the last few days going around Diagon Alley looking for the perfect dress. The one that they both decided on was a light blue dress with a deep v-neck design with beading embellishment with multi-layers of tulle around the satin inner skirt.

"I'm nervous Draco but I am so glad I have you," she whispered back to him as they reached the bottom of the stairs and were greeted by numerous guests, some commenting about their relationship, some which were insults on how Draco could do better- at which Hermione held her head high and refrained herself from snapping any rude comments. There were others however that seemed to like their relationship, which surprised her, as all the guests were purebloods and high up on the social ladder. She curtsied at them to show how she appreciated their comments, even the Parkinson family at first detested them as a couple, but as the dinner continued to progress and they saw how much Draco had changed, they admitted that it wasn't such a bad thing, and it was then that Hermione and Pansy's friendship first started.

After a couple of hours of meetings up with Draco's guests Hermione sat on one of the balcony chairs with Pansy and took her heels off to massage her feet. They were killing and were really sore, Pansy saw this and then suddenly with a flick of her wand, the pain in her feet was gone. Hermione looked at Pansy in shock.

"How did you do that?" she asked as she quickly slipped her heels back on.

"It's a simple spell. Sana Pedibus," Pansy replied and showed Hermione the wand movement that came with the spell, which didn't take long for her to memories and perfect. "Who knew... That I would actually be here talking to- excuse the language, a mudblood, and going out with my teenage crush none the less!" she laughed and Hermione joined in.

"I'm with you on that one Parkinson, if you had told me this during our time at Hogwarts, I would've sent you to St Mungo's!" They laughed together and gave each other a high five before Pansy stood up.

"I should go, Blaise is probably looking for me,"

Hermione nodded and thanked Pansy for teaching her the spell before she left. Hermione stood up and looked at the view that the Malfoy Manor had. It wasn't much she found it beautiful, there was a hill not far in the horizon and there was green grass everywhere, just outside of the boundaries of Malfoy Manor there was a make field Quidditch pitch where she assumed Draco had learnt to become such a good seeker. She heard someone cough behind her and she turned around to see Draco walking up to her.

"Enjoying the view I take it?" he asked as he wrapped his hands around her waist and puller her towards him.

"It's lovely," she replied.

"You see that?" he pointed at the Quidditch pitch. "I was seven when I had my first accident, Blaise and I were playing one-on-one when I slipped off my broom. Fell straight to the floor and was knocked out for at least a week." He chuckled when he heard Hermione gasp as he told her about his first accident on a broom.

"Draco! Well at least you're careful now aren't you?"

"Well of course, I have to look after my faces don't I?"

Hermione turned around to face him and laughed. "You are so up yourself aren't you? Thinking you can get any girl."

"Well, I got you didn't I?"

Hermione blushed at his comment but then she wrapped her arms behind his neck and pulled him closer to kiss him.

XxX

Narcissa looked at Hermione and Draco kissing and she wiped away tears that were appearing in her eyes. A year ago Draco was depressed and never opened up to anybody, and thought that he deserved to die. Now here he was, kissing Hermione and falling for her. Before they realised that she was watching them, she turned around and walked around the Manor greeting guests.

XxX

Once Draco broke the kiss, he looked down at Hermione and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before he spoke.

"Blaise and Pansy are going to visit us tomorrow; they want to go out, like a double date? Is that alright?" he asked.

"Sure, I don't mind. Pansy isn't so bad. I thought she would hate me since I'm going out with you...But she has Blaise. Surprisingly you Slytherins have matured and forgotten about Blood Purity and all that crap." she replied.

"I wish I could say all of us, but I'm only friends with those that have gotten past it."

They sat together in the balcony for the rest of the night, talking and just enjoying each other's company.

XxX

Draco woke up early the next day with Hermione cuddled close to his chest. Slowly getting off the bed without waking up Hermione and walked to the kitchen to make coffee- after Hermione had taught him how to work the machine since he failed before. Blaise and Pansy were stopping by for lunch today and they planned to go out.

Once the coffee was made, he sat down on the living room sofa and turned on the TV and watched the first channel that was on which was a movie about World War I (_All__Quiet__on__the__Western__Front)_. The images on the people dying on the screen suddenly reminded him of the Battle at Hogwarts, the people lying on the floor in the halls. Victims on both sides of the war, death eaters, students, teachers and members of the Order, dead lying on the floor as he walked past them.

The loud noises the came from the television woke him from his daydream and he quickly changed the channel before more memories could arise. The next channel was a cooking show and Draco turned his attention to it. Perhaps he could cook something for Hermione as a surprise sometime soon, the idea sounded well and he began taken notes on a parchment from the cooking show.

It was well over an hour before Hermione woke up, and by then, Blaise had owled Draco what time they would arrive and the cooking show that he had been watching was finish and the notes he had taken hidden, safe from Hermione's eyes. Hermione sat down next to him on the sofa and he handed her the coffee he had made.

"Hope you like it," he said. "Oh and by the way, Blaise owled me, they'll be over here at around one."

"What!" Hermione stood up and looked at the clock. "I have two hours left! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"Because you looked so peaceful asleep and well I didn't think I'd need to. It's Blaise and besides, we're all only meeting here, we're having lunch out probably at a muggle restaurant since Blaise doesn't eat at one often, and hey, it's my treat."

"What? Oh okay fine, but no more treating mister, I'm paying now."

"But..."

"No, I am paying, I feel bad if you're going to treat me again."

Draco say that this was a battle that he wasn't going to win, no matter how much he pushed onto the matter to he just put his hands up in surrender and nodded. "We should get ready..."

XxX

Hermione was in the living room waiting for Draco to get changed when Blaise and Pansy tumbled out of the fireplace. They quickly stood up and shook off the soot that was on their clothes. Hermione then suddenly heard Draco shouting and ran to the living room as he tried to pull his shirt over his head.

"What! What happened?" he shouted while he continued to pull his shirt over his head, but due to his panic it took him longer than it normally would.

"Draco calm down, it's only Pansy and Blaise," Hermione said as she went to Draco and helped him put the shirt on. "If you were trying to protect me... You certainly didn't look all that threatening."

Draco tried to look offended but then it just caused Hermione to laugh. Blaise coughed a bit and it got their attention.

"Uh, bro you ready?" he asked.

"Just a sec," Draco replied and he left suddenly back to his room. Blaise looked at Hermione questioningly and examined her. He realised that she had changed a lot the past year since the war, she had grown a bit in height and her body had matured with elegant curves.

"You've changed Granger," he commented and Hermione turned to face him and Pansy.

"I know,"

"Don't you think her and Draco are perfect together?" Pansy asked Blaise.

"Somewhat, I was against it last night when I saw him with her, but I guess so..."

Before Hermione could reply to Blaise's comment, Draco appeared again just as he slipped his wand into his back pocket and nodded at Blaise saying that he was ready.

XxX

After the two couples had lunch at Diagon Alley, Pansy and Hermione had split up from the boys to have some girl time alone at a nearby muggle cafe.

"So Granger, how long have you and Draco been seeing each other?" Pansy asked as she took a quick sip of her coffee and brushed her hair out of her face,

"Not that long really, perhaps a month or so?" Hermione replied. She was shocked at how long she had been going out with Draco. Sure it was only a month, and it wasn't as long as her relationship with Ron had been, but things in their relationship seemed to have progressed much farther than they had during her time with Ron. She smiled at this thought and knew straight away that she was falling in love. "Well, how was it in Italy with Blaise?"

"Oh it was absolutely magnificent! You should see all the wizarding shops there! The robes they have are absolutely gorgeous! If I had known I would start talking to you and actually becoming friends with you I would've gotten you one!"

"No worries, I'm not really one for much fancy robes..."

"Well yes I can see that but even you would make an exception if you had seen how magnificent those robes were!"

"I think I'll trust you on that one, you're more of the fashionista compared to me.

They spend the rest of the afternoon together chatting and shopping around Muggle London and sometimes stopping by at Hogsmead.

XxX

Blaise walked around the jewel store that Draco had bought the necklace for Hermione and sighed.

"Draco, I seriously don't know what ring to get," he complained as he looked around the assorted rings trying to find the right one for Pansy with Draco following him close behind.

"Don't sweat it mate, listen just choose the one that you feel is right. Why not get one in Slytherin colours?"Draco suggested, doing his utmost best to be helpful to his best friend.

"I could I guess... I'm really scared that she'll say no though!"

"Are you Blaise Zambini? Really? You're scared! You've slept with almost every single girl in Slytherin during our time at Hogwarts and some from other houses and you're scared that she's going to say no? She loves you Blaise! She wouldn't say no, actually part of me is thinking that she's worried you're not even going to ask her to marry you."

"That's just stupid! Of course I am! I love her!"

"Well choose a ring that suits her, you know there are other stores?"

"But you got that necklace for Hermione here and that was nice. I wonder if they have good rings here."

"If I'm going to be honest..." Draco came closer to Blaise and whispered into his ear so that the shop owned wouldn't be able to hear them. "The stores in muggle London would be good, and we can just charm it to fit her finger."

"You tell me this now?"

"Come on let's go."

They walked out of the store and then suddenly apparated in an abandoned alley way in Muggle London, looking around at the jewellery. They soon arrive at a small shop just around the corner from where they had apparated to and Blaise suddenly found a ring that caught his eye. He ran up to it and examined it from the counter. It was a pretty simple ring with a diamond in the middle that gave off a kind of blue light to it and there were some designs just around the diamond.

"May help you sir?" the owner asked as he suddenly appeared in front of Blaise who was examining the ring carefully through the glass counter.

Blaise looked up and coughed to clear his voice. "Ah yes I just wanted to see how much this ring would cost?" he pointed at the one that he had just examined a few seconds back and the owner looked at it and smiled.

"Exquisite taste sir, that is a wonderful ring but I'm afraid it won't come cheap."

"It's alright. I just want to know how much."

"It will be £1000 sir."

"Well I'll take it." Blaise handed over the money that he had converted into Muggle money to the owned and the owned took out the ring and gave it to Blaise inside a small black box.

"Good luck young sir with your missus,"

**A/N-** I hope you enjoyed! I would love reviews! 3


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N-** Here is another chapter! I hope you guys are enjoying it! I haven't had any reviews for a while now :( But I am getting alerts from people putting this story at their favourites or following it, which I appreciate! BUT reviews would also be cool, this is my first story I've written that's been long so if anything is going wrong or I could do anything to improve it, reviews would be great :D

**Disclaimer-**HP, not mine .

**Note-**The same as the others, please forgive my mistakes!

_**Chapter 14**_

Draco and Hermione were staying overnight at the Burrow to help prepare for the wedding the next day. They both sat just outside of the burrow beside the lake looking out into the night sky, appreciating all that they saw. Draco started naming the constellations in the sky and it shocked Hermione how much he knew about the stars. Draco chuckled when she expressed her feelings and rolled towards her until he had her pinned down with his body.

"My mother always wanted me to know more about the origin of my name. Well I got interested..." He said as he started placing kisses down her neck and she released a quick moan.

"Speaking of you..." she pushed him off her before things got too heated and pointed at the sky. "It's you, the ferocious dragon... Wonder what happened to him. Oh yeah! Hercules killed you!" Hermione squealed as Draco pulled her towards him and hugged her tightly.

"I'd be careful Miss Granger, you don't know what this dragon can do."

"I think I already do."

"Pansy and Blaise are engaged."

Hermione suddenly stood up and started jumping and screaming like an excited little girl. "Oh my gosh! They are so cute! I can't believe it! Oh my gosh! Wait... Am I really seriously excited that Pansy is getting married?"

"Yes you are, funny how things change from Hogwarts huh?"

"I know what you mean. I'm dating an ugly guy that was my nemesis!"

"Hey! I resent that!" he stood up and quickly dusted off the grass that was stuck on his clothes. "I'm very handsome and slept with almost every girl in Slytherin in seventh year."

"Well that's not much of an achievement is it?" she raised her eyebrow at him and smirked. This caused Draco to laugh and tackle her to the ground, being careful not to put his full weight on top of her.

"Okay how about this..." he kissed her lips quickly and then looked at her again. "I've got you."

"Oh shut up!" she playfully slapped him on the shoulder, but couldn't help laughing at his comment and blushing a bit.

They snuggled in together and would've fallen asleep there if Ginny hadn't come to get them, but not before squealing and jumping up and down at the excitement of seeing how cute they were together.

XxX

Draco woke up early the next day to find a warm body snuggled into his chest. He smiled as he saw Hermione lying next to him in the small space which was the sofa that they had both fallen asleep on. He smelt her shampoo and it reminded him of apples and soon he was asleep again.

He was woken yet again, but this time it was not peaceful. Molly was above him shaking him awake and shouting at him.

"What are you doing still asleep? Help the boys set up the tent!" she shouted into his ear. He suddenly looked down at his chest and saw that Hermione had also disappeared. _Weird, __I __don__'__t __remember __her __getting __up... __Here __I __was __thinking __I __was __the __sneaky __one._ He sighed and got up off the sofa, quickly fixing up the clothes that he had slept in. "Oh dear you can't go out like that, you can't change into the suit yet. Go to Bill's room, he might have some clothes you can borrow and don't worry dear. He'll be alright with it." Then she shooed him away quickly upstairs to Bill's room.

He came back down again wearing one of Bill's old grey shirts and pants.

"Oh I knew his clothes would fit you!" Molly shrieked as she saw Draco in Bill's old clothes. "Now hurry along and help the others, they need an extra person there to help them." she directed him outside near the lake where Lavender and Ron had decided to hold their wedding.

_Lavender __and __Ron __sure __knew __the __perfect __place __to __hold __a __wedding, __the __view __is __amazing._ Draco couldn't believe that they were able to choose such an amazing scenery for such a special occasion. _Well __I __if __you __have __two __idiotic __people __come __together I guess __they __can __think_.

"Malfoy! Are you just going to stand there and do nothing or actually help us?" Draco shook his head and was brought back to reality, he looked at the source of the voice and saw that it was Harry, and he didn't look too pleased with his daydreaming.

"Coming Potter! Hold your horses!" he shouted back and finally made his way to Harry, who looked annoyed at him.

"Alright, go over there to the other side of the tent and on the count of three we levitate!" Harry watched Draco moved to the assigned position and he looked at the other wizards around him who nodded. "Alright then let's do this! One! Two! Three! Wingardium Leviosa!" He heard people shout the spell the same time he did and he watched in front of him as he saw the great tent levitate into the air. "Careful! Not to fast!" he looked at Bill who was on his right. "Bill, go slower!"

They stood there for at least ten minutes getting the tent in the correct position, and then another five at least for Hermione to cast charms on it so that it would float steadily for the duration of the night. (The tent isn't really a tent... Well it is. Just imagine the one at Bill and Fleur's wedding but with no like walls... So it is just like a roof).

XxX

While the boys were getting things prepared outside, Hermione was in the Burrow in what was Ginny's room, which was currently being substituted as a makeup room for all the girls to get their things ready. Lavender wasn't helping much with her jumpiness and nervousness, but for once Hermione didn't blame her, because the wedding day was always a nervous time. She remembered her mum talking about her own wedding and how nervous she had been. That was suddenly when a thought ran through her head, her parents didn't know about her and Draco yet! She started planning on how she was going to get Draco to meet her parents and have them hopefully accept him… Especially after the letters she had sent home during her time at Hogwarts about how much of a prat Draco had been then, and how she wished to never see him again. _Oh __how __times __change, __and __for __the __better __I __might __actually __add._ She laughed at her own thought and then continued to help Lavender with her make-up.

XxX

Hermione sat at the table and watched the people dancing on the dance floor to some song by the Weird Sisters that she had never heard of before. She had spent the last two hours on the dance floor with a number of guests, but a majority of the time she was with Draco, slowly dancing to the music. After a while though her heels killed from the dancing and she sat down on the nearest table she saw.

Someone tapped her shoulder and she instantly frowned, as she assumed that it was Draco.

"Can I just rest a bit Draco? My feet are killing me, maybe you should try wearing heels." she said as she turned around to look at Draco. Only it wasn't Draco, it was Cormac. Cormac McLaggen. She tried to hide her disgust when she saw him, and it seemed to have worked as he didn't say anything, just smiled as she looked at him. "Cormac!"

"Hermione! How have you been? I haven't seen you for at least a year or so now!" he exclaimed and grabbed a seat next to her. "How have you been?"

"Good thanks. How about you?"

"Not too bad, listen I was wondering..."

_Here is comes..._

"Do you want to go out on a date with me sometime? You know... Since well... Can we go out sometime?"

Hermione's heart plummeted as Cormac asked her out. How many times had she said no to him during their sixth year at Hogwarts? The poor man just didn't give up! "I'm sorry... I'm currently seeing someone..."

"Who would that be?" he raised an eyebrow disbelievingly.

"That would be me." Hermione jumped in her seat from surprised and turned around to look at Draco. His glare at Cormac was dangerous, and even she knew that when he looked like that at someone, they were going to have to be careful if they didn't want to be on the receiving end of his wand.

"I don't believe this. Malfoy..." Cormac stood up in disbelief and looked at Hermione quickly before setting his eyes on Draco.

"Nobody did at first, but times change." he smiled at Hermione who was giving him a worried look and nodded at her. "May I take you for a dance?" he held his hand out for Hermione to hold and she did so eagerly, forgetting totally about her sore feet, she just wanted to avoid Cormac.

As they reached the dance floor and wrapped their arms around each other, Hermione caught a quick glimpse of Cormac as he stormed off, and she couldn't hold back a giggle.

"I take it he was annoying you?"

"Thank you so much." she whispered into his ear. "He is such a pain in the ass."

"Yes he is. You are mine," he pulled her back and gave her a kiss on the lips just to back up his statement, though Hermione of course wouldn't need evidence to prove his statement. She loved how he was protective of her, and it gave her butterflies in her stomach just thinking about it. _He__'__s __so __protective __of __me __now... __I... __I __love __him..._"How long do you plan on staying?"

"We can go now if you want?" she asked.

"Yes please, that would be pretty good."

"The day the Draco used manners... Oh my gosh."

"Oh shut it woman, you are having too much of an effect on me. Tomorrow, is Mother's birthday, remember the surprise right?"

"Of course! Well let's go now? My feet are killing me and I don't want to risk sitting down again and have Cormac trying to hit on me again."

Draco chuckled at her comment and after quickly saying a quick goodbye to Narcissa- whom Lavender had insisted on inviting once she found out how much of a fashionista she was and to Lavender and Ron Weasley and wishing them a good honeymoon, they apparated back to their apartment.

XxX

The next day Hermione and Draco woke up at their usual time of 10 o'clock. They already had a plan set up so that Narcissa would be away for most of the day until Hermione and Draco were finished preparing Malfoy Manor for her birthday party. Draco had received an owl shortly after they got up from Blaise, indicating that he and Pansy had Narcissa distracted by taking her out shopping as their birthday present for her.

"Choc! They've got mother! Have you got the stuff?" Draco shouted as he read the letter. Then their doorbell went off. "It's the Weasels!"

"Honestly Draco," Hermione came out of their bedroom and went up to the kitchen. "I told you to not call them Weasels, they've accepted you so accept them. And don't call me Choc!" He had given her that nickname recently after a certain incident last week when Draco had thrown melted chocolate all over her as a prank and he had stuck with that nickname for her since then and it pissed Hermione off, giving Draco even more of a reason to use it on her.

"Sorry choc, I have, it's just habits are hard to break." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "Now I'd open the door before they get impatient."

Hermione stuck her tongue out at him but then listened to him and opened the door and there was a small crowd of red-headed people standing right outside of the door with Molly being in front of the crowd.

"Thank you everyone for coming early, I think we're going to need help to prepare for the party later." Hermione said as she directed everyone into the living room. All of the Weasley were there except for Charlie who was back in Romania watching over the dragons that he truly loved, George who was busy looking after the shop but would arrive just before the party started and Ginny, who was staying with Harry to look after Teddy. Even Ron was going to help out for the preparation. He had apologized to both her and Draco for his attitude (Lavender had no problem with Draco, she found him very sexy) and so they were all friends again, though Draco was still uneasy around Ron. When everyone was inside, Hermione looked around at the now packed living room. "Ron, where's Lavender? Isn't she coming to the party?"

"Yeah she is 'Mione, it's just she's at work at the moment, said she'll come for the party." Ron replied.

"Oh alright..."

"There are some boxes in my room, Bill, Percy, Ron could you get them please and floo them to the Manor?"

"Okay," Ron started making his way to Hermione's room and Bill followed behind, but when he came to Hermione he stopped.

"Fleur is going to come later if she can. Her job is just keeping her loaded at the moment," he said then quickly went off with Ron to her room with Percy close behind.

"Molly, could you help me cook?"

"Oh dear do you really need to ask? Of course! Now just tell me what we're going to do."

"Thank you Molly, hey Honey!" she turned around to Draco who was in the kitchen cleaning the dishes the muggle way.

"What?" he asked.

"Just get those cleaned by magic and could you help the boys set up?"

"Alright!" Draco flicked his wand at the remaining pile of dishes, which then started cleaning themselves. As if on cue, Bill, Percy and Ron arrived back out of Hermione's room, carrying the boxes that they could, and levitating the remaining boxes. "Oh good! Draco's going to help you guys!"

One by one, Percy, Bill and Ron flooed to Malfoy Manor with the boxes that they could carry, before Draco followed them, he quickly gave Hermione a kiss on the cheek and then flooed himself and the remaining amount of boxes to the Manor.

Once they were all gone, Hermione let out a big sigh of relief and faced Molly.

"Today is going to be a big day... I'm so glad you guys could help." she said.

"Oh don't worry dear, you two are so good together and I am happy to help make Draco's mother's birthday one that she will remember forever." Molly beamed and gave Hermione a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"I love you guys."

XxX

By the time Molly and Hermione had finished cooking everything it was already 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Blaise and Pansy would be coming back with Narcissa at around 6 o'clock and Hermione wasn't anywhere ready! She hadn't fixed her hair and she knew that it would take ages to tame the annoying little brute that she called her hair. Her clothes, she had a vague idea on what she was going to wear but she hadn't planned far, she didn't think it would take so long to cook the food! Everything else was going good however, Bill, Percy, Ron and Draco had finished decorating the Manor's Great Hall where the party would take place and had cast the necessary spells so that certain rooms were out of bounds for the night. It all looked so beautiful in Hermione's opinion and everything was so perfect she couldn't wait to see Narcissa's expression. Once Molly and her had set the food and cast the required spells on it that would keep it constantly hot and fresh, Molly left to go back to the Burrow with the others to get ready for the party.

Hermione walked through the halls with Draco and they stopped by at his old room. It was similar to the layout of his room in Hermione's apartment but was much more ravishing, with a king size bed, a much bigger desk that was covered in photos. The windows had an excellent view of the countryside and the curtains were a light greenish colour. There was a door next to the bed that led to his bathroom, which was the size of the prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts, if not bigger! Hermione sighed as she took everything in, Draco lived in such luxuries and had all the money in the world to be able to get any girl he wanted, and yet here he was, with her, a big insufferable know-it-all. Oh how lucky she was to have him. She left the bathroom and went back to the previous room to find Draco sprawled out on his bed and looking up at the ceiling with a huge smile on his face. He suddenly sat up and his smile- if it was even possible- grew wider and he stood up and wrapped his arms around Hermione.

"What do you think of my old room?" he asked when they broke off the hug and he pointed to his room.

"It's absolutely magnificent. Have you seen your bathroom!" she replied. "I think it could be bigger than the Prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts! Sometimes I..." she sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"What is it Choc?" his grin suddenly changed to that of a worried expression.

"I really wonder what you see in me, I mean you have all the money in the world to get _any_girl you want. Yet here you are with me. An insufferable know-it-all."

"You really should look at the mirror more often and have much more faith in yourself." he walked behind her and placed his hands on her waist. "You are beautiful." he started nibbling on the side of her neck. "I... I love you." he felt Hermione stiffen underneath him and suddenly he was worried that he had said it too soon. Suddenly Hermione turned around and crashed her lips on his.

When they broke of the kiss she spoke again with a certain gleam in her eyes. "I love you too."

XxX

"Choc! Hurry Up!" Draco shouted from the living room. He was in already dressed and ready for the party. He was in his black suit, similar to the one that he had worn at Ron and Lavender's wedding, but not as extravagant as then. He had a vest instead of the blazer. Hermione was being her usual self and was being picky and difficult. "Choc!" he shouted again when Hermione didn't come out after he called her the first time. This time though finally Hermione did come out of her room. She was wearing a purple dress that he hadn't seen before, the front reached up to her knees, but it got longer as at the back as it was touching the floor, almost dragging across. He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her chest, careful not to ruin her hair or dress so as to avoid having her have a go at him. "You look beautiful, shall we go then?" She took his arm and smiled.

"Can we apparate there? I don't want to ruin the dress." Hermione asked.

"Why would I say no? Let's go." He apparated them both to the inside of Malfoy Manor where people were already gathered around just waiting apprehensively for Blaise and Pansy to arrive with Narcissa before the party could officially begin.

Everyone was already prepared; the Weasleys were in one corner talking to the Zambini family and surprisingly were getting along pretty well. There were also others there of course; most of them were people that had been at the New Year's Eve Dinner party.

There was suddenly a knock at the door and all noise in the Hall dissipated, and people started casting disillusionment charms on themselves and the others so that they were all somewhat invisible. The door opened and Narcissa, Blaise and Pansy came into view.

"Oh Blaise, Pansy, thank you for the excellent day out. It was a wonderful birthday present!" Narcissa beamed at Blaise and Narcissa and gave them a big hug.

"It's no worry Narcissa," Then suddenly Blaise nodded and every one cancelled their Disillusionment charms and appeared, all shouting 'Surprise!' at the same time.

"Oh my gosh!" people crowded around Narcissa and wished her a happy birthday. People were shouting everywhere and casting small fireworks from their wands. The party had started.

XxX

The party went without problem, and everyone got along surprisingly well. It seemed that everyone there that had been so obsessed about blood purity had suddenly not given a hippogriff's ass about it since the end of the war. This pleased Hermione a lot, she saw George and flirting with whom she assumed to be Blaise's younger sister, though her name escaped her and laughed at George continued to impress Blaise's younger sister. She nudged Draco who was talking to Blaise and pointed at George. Blaise looked that way as well, curious at what Hermione seemed so interested in.

"I bet you 2 Gallons that they will be snogging by the end of the night," Draco said and smirked at Blaise.

"Oi! That's Claire you're betting on! My sister remember?" Blaise shouted at her.

"Don't worry about it."

"You're on," Hermione replied and shook Draco's hand to finalise the bet. Then suddenly when they turned back to look at George and Claire, Hermione's heart dropped as she realised that she had lost the bet already, with George's hands in Claire's hair and her arms around his waist, bringing him closer to her as they kissed.

"Hermione..." Draco held out his hand and smirked at her. "Pay up."

"Oh you were just lucky." she reluctantly handed him the 2 Gallons and then stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh don't be a sore loser Choc," He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then he suddenly swore as he saw Blaise make his way towards the snogging couple [George & Claire]. "We should stop Blaise before he does anything." he quickly made his way to Blaise before he even reached the couple and pulled him away. "Blaise! Calm! She's of age now! She knows what she's doing."

"I would hope so...But it's the red-head!"

"Yes, but they aren't actually that bad once you get to know them. Listen, I don't think that Weasel would just mess with your sister, and if he does he's going to have me to talk to."

"Fine, but he better be careful."

"I'll tell Choc to talk to him if you want."

"That would be good, just so he knows who he's messing with." Then Blaise walked away to be suddenly intercepted by Molly. Draco laughed at this, and assumed that Blaise and Pansy were perhaps soon to be part of Molly's Sunday Dinner.

**A/N-** Hope that was a good chapter! Please review! :D Virtual cookies for you guys if you do :3


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N-**Another Chapter guys! I have great news! There's only going to be three chapters left of this story and I already have a rough idea of how the remaining three chapters are going to be about, so I'll be updating the rest of this story pretty frequently and shall perhaps finish this by the end of this week or next week! I thank you to all you people that have supported this story and me! And please keep the reviews coming! :3

**Disclaimer-**Potter, not mine... I wouldn't mind Draco though :3

**Note-**Same as usual, so sorry for any mistakes

_**Chapter 15**_

Hermione looked up from her patients list to find Draco looking down at her with a grin on his face. He was so happy that it looked like he had made the England Quidditch team! But she couldn't blame him after all; it was his last appointment with Brian, the healer who had originally been assigned with him. If Brian deemed him safe he would finally be able to start looking for a job and wouldn't have to come to St Mungo's anymore for appointments unless Hermione thought things were getting bad again for him. Hermione knew though that things were going perfectly fine.

"Draco, I'm working at the moment, why aren't you with Brian for your check up?" she asked, looking huffed.

"He's not there yet, won't be for another 15 minutes. So I'm just deciding to walk around a bit." he replied.

"Well you can go around, but don't disturb me while I'm checking my patients please Draco,"

"Oh course not Choc, tonight though, are we going to the Weasels- I mean Weasley's Sunday Dinner?"

"We've been going for weeks now so of course, besides Pansy and Blaise's marriage is coming up soon."

It was true, it was almost the end of April already and Blaise and Pansy had planned to get married at May 16 which was only a few weeks away. Pansy was starting to get jittery and was talking to Lavender a lot, since she had just recently been married and could relate to Pansy the most about the nervous feelings that crept up as the wedding day neared.

"Now Draco, I need to get back to work, I'll see you later then." she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, unknowingly that there were other healers watching and giggling while she did so.

"I'll see you later at the Weasley's then. Love you."

"I love you too," They then parted ways, Hermione went to check on her patients while Draco continued to explore what he could of St Mungo's before he had to return back to Brian's room for his appointment.

XxX

Draco sat down at the Weasley's living room couch talking to George while Claire went to speak to Pansy and Blaise in the kitchen.

"Hermione warned you right?" he asked George.

"Yes, she told me a few days after your mother's birthday party. No matter what, I really do like her... She understands my feelings and... I can tell her anything, especially about Fred." George replied.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Blaise trusts you, he's just being the very overprotective big brother. Like you guys are to Ginny before with Harry right?"

"I guess so, we never anticipated them getting married though. If we did... Well Harry would've received lots of threats from Bill about him being very careful not to hurt Ginny." he chuckled at the thought.

"Potter being on the receiving end of threats, he's probably used to it by now though."

The front door suddenly opened and Draco turned around quickly to see Hermione walk into the Burrow, her hair was a bit frizzier than usual and Draco assumed that she must've taken a shower before arriving here. He stood up and gave Hermione a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"How was work?"

"Oh annoying! So many people there being ungrateful little snobs! I swear I could've hexed them to oblivion!" Hermione complained, looking huffed.

"Well I'm glad you didn't, I wouldn't want my little Choc ending up at Azkaban now."

"That was the only thing that stopped me I think." she chuckled. Then from the kitchen, she heard Molly's voice, calling them all for dinner and then footsteps could be heard coming down from the stairs. Once food called, the Weasleys were there. "We should go to the kitchen before we get run over by a herd of red heads."

"For once Choc, I agree with you."

They both walked towards the kitchen holding hands and they sat beside George and Claire. Hermione looked across the table to see Blaise and Pansy were holding hands and Blaise was staring intently on George. Though she had told him that George wasn't the type of man to hurt a girl, Blaise still kept a close eye on him, Hermione stayed silent about this, as long as Blaise didn't do anything to interfere with George and Claire's relationship, she was alright.

Dinner was delicious as per usual thanks to Molly's cooking and George was laughing along with Claire. Ginny was feeding Teddy some food and he was laughing at George who was making faces at him. This annoyed Ginny a bit since it made feeding Teddy more of a chore then it already was, but she quickly dismissed it when she saw how happy George was. Things really were turning out for the best for everyone. Blaise and Pansy actually got along with the family, Draco and Hermione were absolutely cute together, and it seemed like George and Claire were really good for each other. All was suddenly silent and Ginny looked up from Teddy and saw that Blaise and Pansy were standing up and looking lovingly at each other.

"We have news guys…"Pansy said.

Hermione stood up suddenly and covered her mouth with her hand.

"It seems like you guessed…"

"Oh my GOD," Hermione replied and started jumping up and down with Draco looking up at her questioningly. "How far along?"

"Two months."

Suddenly, it seemed like a bomb went off, the remaining members of the dining table stood up after finally realising what Pansy had meant and were congratulating her and Blaise. Though they weren't part of the family legally, they were close enough to it.

"Do your parents know?" Hermione asked.

"Our parents were the first to find out, they were ecstatic."

"I would think so!"

"Alright alright people, Darl," It was Blaise that spoke and he wrapped her arms around Pansy and pulled her closer to him. "It's getting late, I think we should go."

"Oh Blaise now?" Pansy moaned, but then chuckled a bit when Blaise nibbled on her ear.

"Yes, you need to rest."

"Oh alright then…" Pansy released herself from Blaise's grasp and went around to the Weasley family, saying goodbye to each of them. "Molly thank you for the dinner, it was delicious." Then she reached Draco and Hermione. She gave Hermione a quick hug and then Draco before she left the Burrow with Blaise, holding hands.

"You know Draco… You really should meet my parents, I haven't seen them in a while and introducing them to you and you getting to know them would be nice." Hermione said, once Blaise and Pansy were gone and everyone had calmed down a bit from the news of Pansy's pregnancy.

"Are you... sure?" Draco asked nervously, he knew he was going to have to see Hermione's parents soon, especially with how their relationship was progressing, but he was nervous.

"Yes, they should know about you."

"If you say so." He was going to say more but then Draco felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned to look at Harry. "Potter, what is it?"

"Bill, Ron and I were planning to play a bit of Quidditch," Harry replied and pointed to the small group of red heads that were in the living room holding onto their broomsticks.

"Where's George?"

"Well... he's out right now."

Draco smirked at Harry's reply, but he didn't want to think about what that red head would be doing with his best friend's little sister."Alright," He said a quick bye to Hermione before following Harry.

Hermione sighed but then smiled as he saw Draco grab a broomstick from Bill and watch the four of them go outside to play Quidditch. If they still hadn't finished by the time her and Ginny had finished talking, she would watch them. She went over to Ginny who was just finishing up feeding Teddy and handing him over to Fleur and they both moved to the living room.

"How has the bookworm been?" Ginny asked as they sat down next to each other on the sofa, with the kids that were around them already asleep.

"Actually pretty good." Hermione replied, she was in a really good mood, and Pansy's announcement of being pregnant had just made her day even better. "I love him Ginny,"

"You don't need to tell me that woman! I can see it in the way you look at him. Oh just in case it went through your small head unnoticed, he loves you too, and as I said, I can also see it in the way he looks at you."

"I know Ginny, I don't know what I would do without him now if I'm going to be honest."

"I know that feeling, trust me. It's the same with me actually, I can't imagine myself without Teddy and Harry now. Merlin Bless all those that died in the war."

"But I would have to say that Remus and Tonks would be proud of you looking after their son."

"I know, it's Just, I never imagined that I would become friends with _anyone_from Slytherin, but then look where we are! You're dating Malfoy, Mum invited Blaise and Pansy to our weekly Sunday Dinner, and George is going out with Claire! Blaise's younger sister! Who knew that we could be friends with them!"

"War does things to people Ginny, as you can see right now. Everyone's changed, and I'm actually glad to say that it's for the better."

"Well not everything, there are still death eaters about…"

Hermione and Ginny kept talking for at least a couple of more minutes until they realised that there was nothing else that they could talk about and thus decided to end their conversation by part their ways. Ginny went over to Fleur to get Teddy, and Hermione went outside to watch the boys who were playing. When she reached outside, she saw the boys were playing and by the colour of their robes, she assumed that it was Bill and Draco against Ron and Harry, though she wasn't sure of who was winning, with the smug faces on Bill and Draco's faces- Draco's especially, they were winning. As soon as Draco saw Hermione, he signalled Bill, Ron and Harry for a quick break before he flew down to her.

"Took you long enough to come Choc," He smirked.

"Oh shut it, I was talking with Ginny," she replied and playfully smacked his shoulder.

"That hurt Choc!" he flew back a bit and pretended to look hurt.

"Could do you some good, loosen your ego a bit"

"Oh Choc…" he flew up slowly and when Hermione thought that they were going to start playing again, he stopped, quickly flew back to her and before she could do anything, he lifted her onto the broom and sat her in front of him.

"DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY! PUT MEEE DOWN!" she squealed and then turned her back quickly to hold onto Draco with a death grip and closed her eyes.

"I'm going to teach you to fly," He wrapped one arm around her waist to stop her from falling and the other hand held onto the broom.

"No! Eeek! Draco!"

"Choc, turn around and face forward again, hold onto the broom," He watched as Hermione did as he said and turned around again to face forward and held onto the broom until her knuckles went white. "Choc relax, Harry told me about your flying experience... I'm going to teach you because... You'll find out why." He looked up quickly at Bill, Ron and Harry and they realised that he wouldn't be joining them anytime soon so they continued playing, but not before Bill stuck his finger up at him with a smirk on his face. "I'm just going to fly slowly alright?"

"Why? You… You know how much I hate flying so why are you teaching me?" she was stuttering every now and then but she believed that Draco was going to protect her, even if she was just scared out of her wits.

"I want you to feel the freedom that I do when I fly. Do you trust me?"

Hermione calmed down, looked behind at Draco and gave him a hard kiss on the lips. "Of course, I love you."

XxX

Hermione and Draco finished their flying lesson at around ten that night, and by then Bill, Ron and Harry had finished playing, and surprisingly Bill was able to maintain the lead that he and Draco had before Draco left and therefore won. Ron wasn't that happy with it but then soon forgot about it. Another surprise was when Hermione didn't want to finish their flying lesson. After at least 30 minutes of slow flying, Hermione had finally been able to overcome her initial fear of flying and starting flying around much more confidently, sometimes even taking the lead in where the broom went. This made Draco's happy because Hermione was really enjoying flying at last and got over her fear. They went back inside the Burrow holding hands, and Hermione was carrying the broomstick with a smile plastered onto her face. When Harry saw this he laughed.

"Draco, how in Merlin's beard did you get her to enjoy flying?" he asked Draco as he pat his back.

"Skill Potter, something you seem to lack," Draco replied, with a smirk on his face. "Choc, we should go now, it's getting kind of late."

"Oh you'll pay Malfoy, a one on one some time."

"Bring it." They shook hands as if to confirm the challenge. After that Draco and Hermione started going around to the people that were left at the Burrow and said their quick farewells before making their leave.

**A/N-** Three chapters left guys! :D Virtual cookies for those that review! Thank you everyone! 3


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N-** Alright alright I know I said I had an idea well... I had finished writing this today and since this chapter was pretty short I just though well why not upload it now along with the previous chapter and so here is another one! Two Chapters left peoples!

**Disclaimer-** HP= Not mine... Again :'(

**Note-** Same again... This time though as well I want to ask you beautiful readers a favour. I need a boy's name. Something special and not common, but also not extravagantly strange, something like Draco's name? But not Draco's. It can be a girl or a boy's name. If you have any then please just write a review and suggest a name! :D I need a name though before I upload Chapter 17, so until I have some suggestions for names, it'll probably be a few days before I can upload Chapter 17. So please drop a review!

_**Chapter 16**_

Draco and Hermione walked up to the front door of Hermione's parent's house. It had been around two weeks since the eventful Sunday Dinner at the Burrow where Pansy had announced to being pregnant and they had found time to be able to meet up with Hermione's parents, which had actually become quite a challenge due to Pansy and Blaise's marriage coming up. But it was Tuesday now, exactly two weeks before the wedding and they were standing outside of Hermione's parent's house. Draco pulled on his collar for the umpteenth time and smiled a bit as Hermione kissed his cheek reassuringly.

"Don't be so nervous Draco, just act natural and they will love you." she told him as she rang the doorbell. Voices could be heard on the other side and Draco assumed that it was her parents. Then a few agonizing seconds later the door opened and a brunette lady wearing an apron appeared. "Mum!" Hermione screamed and gave her mum a big hug and kiss on the cheek.

"I've missed you darling!" The older woman said as they broke apart the hug and then looked at Draco. "Is this the man?"

"Yes, Draco Malfoy! Draco, meet my mum, mum, meet Draco."

Draco held his hand out and Mrs. Granger took it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Granger," he said.

"Oh please call me Jane,"

"Oh okay, it is um… a pleasure to meet you Jane. Hermione is wonderful,"

"Come in!" Jane moved aside to give Hermione and Draco space to come inside. Once they were inside, Jane shut the door behind them and led them to the living room. There Draco saw a man sitting on the couch watching a football match, he didn't know who the teams were but he saw the sigh at the corner of the screen that showed that it was a match from the Barclays Premier League [Also known as the English Premier League or EPL for short]. "Honey, our daughter's here." At the sound of Jane's voice the man turned around from the couch and as soon as he caught sight of Hermione, jumped out from the sofa and gave Hermione a hug.

"My girl! It's been too long!" he said as he hugged Hermione.

"I know daddy, and I'm sorry about that." she said and then faced Draco. "Dad, this is my boyfriend."

Draco held out his hand and introduced himself, like he had done when he introduced himself to Jane.

"The name is Draco sir," he said as Hermione's dad shook his hand.

"Call me Callum, I take it that you're um... A wizard?" Callum replied.

"Yes sir, I was the same year as Hermione at school."

"Oh alright, well anyways, lunch is ready. Let's eat."

The four of them sat at the dining table, Callum and Jane together on one side and Hermione and Draco at the other and they started eating. With Callum asking Draco occasional questions about his time at Hogwarts.

"We weren't that close during out time at Hogwarts sir. In fact, we were enemies in a sense." Draco replied to Callum's question about how close they had been at school.

"Really? Honey..." Callum said and then looked at Hermione. "Is this the young man you would owl us about?" Draco looked at Hermione and raised an eyebrow.

"Uh... Yes... But he's change now actually. Ever since the war..." Hermione replied sheepishly as she tried to hide a blush from Draco who was staring at her.

"Oh so you talked about me? I really am that irresistible huh?" Draco smirked.

"You were a prat then, admit it."

"A devishly handsome one at that," he started waggling his eyebrows at Hermione and it caused her, Jane and Callum to laugh.

"Oh he reminds me of myself when I was his age!" Callum said as he stifled a laugh.

Conversations continued from then quite comfortably and soon they had finished lunch. Jane and Hermione went to the kitchen to clean up the dishes while Draco and Callum talked.

"I approve of you son." Callum said as he reached out to Draco's shoulder and pat him. "I like you and I think you'll watch my daughter."

Draco nodded at this and thanked him for his approval of him.

"Your daughter is absolutely gorgeous and I am lucky to have her." he said.

"Take good care of her."

XxX

For a majority of the day Draco explored Hermione's home town, with Hermione occasionally stopping them to explain certain incidents that happened at certain spots. But soon the weather got too cold and they ended up having to go back to the house, where Callum started introducing to Draco to whole idea of football and the rules and as such. By the end of the day, Draco and Callum were both shouting and swearing at the television for stupid tackles and shots and as such. Hermione and Jane were laughing at the sight but the boys were to absorbed into their match to care much about it.

"He is a really sweet boy honey," Jane whispered to her daughter as they watched the boys. "I'm glad that you two were able to forget your past and get together."

"He had a tough year, ever since the war and well…" Hermione smiled at the sight of Draco shouting at the TV before continuing. "He was my patient at first and then things just progressed from there."

"Patient? Is he all right now? What was up?"

"He's all good now… I don't know if I can say though why he was at St Mungo's… It's a bit personal."

"I understand, listen though, do you guys want to sleep over?"

"Oh mother we can't. Draco's best friend is getting married In like two weeks so we have to go back home and from tomorrow I'm going with Pansy to pick up her dress."

"Oh okay, oh by the way." Jane went closer to Hermione and whispered into her ear. "I wouldn't mind if you married him…" There was cheek in her voice but Hermione still gasped at her mum's comment.

"Mum! We've only been dating for a few months."

"I know honey but still… In a year or so…"

"Mum!" Hermione tried to look shock but she knew that even though it had only been a few months, Draco had a huge impact on her life already.

**A/N-** Yippee! Don't forget about the note at the top! Love you guys! Virtual Cookies for all of you! (Extra brownie points to those that review! :3)


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N-**One last chapter after this one… Well I'm going to upload it now since I've finished it now! My friend and I discussed names and well I got two names! You'll find out what they are at the next chapter!

**Disclaimer-** Not JK :(

**Note-** Just the same as usual I guess :P

_**Chapter 17**_

It was the first day of June and Hermione was with Ginny, Pansy and Lavender having lunch at their favourite muggle café, catching up and gossiping about the latest things. Ginny was of course rambling on about Quidditch and had Lavender's and Pansy's full attention. It seemed that in such a small space of time, Ginny had somehow found a way for Lavender and Pansy to become attracted to Quidditch and Hermione was yet to be affected by it. It was either Ginny wasn't as bothered in trying to get Hermione to like Quidditch, or she had just given up overall, finally realizing that Hermione was never going to have much interest in the sport known as Quidditch.

"Harry was able to arrest the last of the Rogue Death Eaters last night," Ginny said and this got Hermione's attention.

"Did they? Thank god for that! Those Death Eaters really are scum." Lavender commented. "At least Harry killed Voldemort."

"Anyways if they went against us, they would have to deal with me!" Ginny and Hermione said together, and then quickly looked at each other and laughed when they realized that they had both spoken at the same time and said the same thing.

"Great minds think alike I guess," Hermione said.

"Course!"

Once the four of them finished their lunch, they left the café and Hermione led them to a nearby music store. As soon as they entered, the owner of the shop went up to them.

"Ah yes ladies how can I help you?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you had any music books that have songs by Green Day?" Hermione asked.

"Yes here," The owned started walking deeper into the store, waiting for Hermione to follow.

"Just go around for a bit, I'll see you guys in a minute." Hermione told them as she began to follow the owner. Lavender, Ginny and Pansy just nodded at her and then started to explore the store.

An hour later, the girls left the music store with smiles on their face. Things took longer than expected thanks to Ginny, Pansy and Lavender who had started trying out every single musical instrument they could in the shop until finally Hermione pulled them away from the store before they could stay there any longer. While they were walking down the streets, Hermione checked the time on her watch and suddenly cursed.

"What's up 'Mione?" Ginny asked.

"I got an appointment, I need to go now. I'll see you later yeah?" Hermione replied.

"You okay?" Hermione gave Ginny a reassuring look and then nodded. "Alright, be at the 12 Grimmauld Place at 7 okay? Harry should have taken Draco out by then."

"Seeya then," Hermione quickly checked her surroundings and since there was no one around- save for Ginny, Lavender and Pansy, she apparated to St Mungo's for her appointment.

XxX

Draco sat up from his desk as soon as he heard the door of his office open and he quickly scrambled through his desk pretending to be shuffling papers. When he looked up to see who had entered he gave a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Harry. Ever since Harry had found out that Draco was able to get a job, he had automatically asked Draco if he wanted to become an Auror. Draco declined- much to Harry's surprise and instead worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement under the Improper Use of Magic Office Division.

"Draco," Harry started to say. "Ron, Blaise and I were planning to go out for later, you know like a boys' day out or something. I was wondering if you wanted to come."

"What?" Draco looked at his Calendar on his desk to see if he had anything to do. "Yeah sure, Choc's working all of today anyways."

Harry nodded at Draco and left the room, smiling to himself. Maybe Hermione _could _tell a lie every now and then and not make it look suspicious after all.

XxX

At exactly 7 o'clock, the doorbell at 12 Grimmauld Place rang and Ginny quickly opened it to find Hermione standing outside.

"'Mione! Glad you came!"Ginny cried as she signaled for Hermione to come inside, in which she did and then they made their way to the living room, where Narcissa, Lavender, Pansy, and Claire were all sitting. "We were just waiting for you. Draco's gone with Harry, Blaise and Ron,"

"I know, besides Draco thinks I'm working all day so it's alright if I wasn't home when he finished work." Hermione replied as she sat next to Pansy.

"Better safe than sorry. Now we gotta plan for Draco's surprise party. He's turning 20 right?"

"Yes,"

"Alright well we already know it's going to be your apartment." Ginny motioned to Hermione. "But we haven't exactly planned on how we can keep him away for most of the day so we can set the place up…"

"That's easy, I'll just take him out for the day, like what Blaise and Pansy did to keep Narcissa away while we got the party ready."

"Alright, well since we got that straight, what about the food?"

"Molly and I can cook," Narcissa suggested and Ginny nodded at her in agreement.

"Alright, 'Mione, where's the things for the party?"

"They're in the back room. It's warded though and has a illusion charm on it. So that if Draco went in he would see random junk, to cancel the magic just say _Lorem_."

"Got it,"

XxX

June 5 arrived quickly for Hermione, perhaps it was a little bit _too_ quick, but she couldn't do anything about it. She woke up at 9 o'clock, an hour earlier than what time her and Draco would usually wake up just so she could cook him breakfast in bed and so she could owl Ginny about what she was planning to do and how long they would probably be away from the apartment. Once she had finished making breakfast and sending Angel out to Ginny, she carried the tray of Draco's favourite breakfast food into their room and placed it on the desk. She then slowly made her way to the bed towards the sleeping Draco and got on top of him, and giving him a kiss on the lips. It took only a matter of seconds before Draco woke up and returned the kiss and had his arms around her back, pulling her closer towards him. When they broke the kiss, they were both breathing deeply and smiling.

"I could get used to waking like that," Draco smirked. Hermione laughed at this and sat up.

"Well don't because it won't always happen." Hermione playfully slapped Draco's topless chest as he pretended to look hurt from her comment. "Happy birthday honey." she gave him another kiss on the lips before finally getting up from the bed and bringing Draco the breakfast she had cooked just not long ago. "I made you breakfast in bed."

As soon as Draco saw what Hermione had made, his mouth began to drool and he could smell the strong scent that came from the pancakes. "Ricotta and berry pancakes! My favourite!" he said and then suddenly sat up and eyed Hermione carefully as she walked towards him with the tray of food. "With chocolate smoothie..."

"Yes sir, I know it's your favourite." she then sat the food on the bed and Draco started eating slowly.

"You know," Draco said, in between bites of his pancakes. "Now I really wouldn't mind waking up to this every day." he smiled.

"It's your birthday Draco, everything is going to be about you. Today only,"

"Aw Choc I'm hurt."

"Just eat," she chuckled and then opened her mouth as Draco fed her some pancakes. "Delicious."

"Well you did cook it,"

"Alright, well when you finish, take a shower, we are going out for lunch." Hermione stood up again and grabbed her clothes and left to take a shower in the guest's bathroom.

"Seeya Choc," he said just before she left and she returned it with a nod.

It was 11 o'clock by the time both Draco and Hermione were ready but lucky for Hermione, they were still somewhat ahead of schedule. As they left the apartment, Hermione quickly flicked her wand at the fireplace while Draco wasn't looking to turn off the floo connection.

"Let's go shall we Draco?" Hermione said and held her hand out for Draco to take.

XxX

At precisely 11:30am, the door to Hermione's apartment opened and Ginny, Lavender, Pansy, Blaise, Narcissa, Molly and Ron entered and Ginny took control of the crowd.

"Alright, the things are at the back door, it's warded though. To cancel the magic just say _Lorem_ and it should be gone and you can get the things. Lavender and I shall clean up the place a bit, Blaise, Ron, could you two start unpacking the stuff out the back? Mum, Narcissa, can you two just start preparing to cook and stuff? Pansy, you can help Lavender and I clean up, but could you just check outside every now and then to make sure Draco doesn't just suddenly appear?"

People started moving around and shuffling through the apartment doing their designated jobs and Ginny smiled to herself. Things were going good, Draco was going to enjoy this party a lot.

XxX

The crowd of people at Hermione's apartment suddenly quietened down as soon as they heard the sound of a key unlocking the door. Ginny suddenly turned around to the group of people that had suddenly quietened down and signalled for them to cast their disillusionment spells. There was a quick wave of wands from everybody and they all suddenly turned invisible.

The front door suddenly opened and Hermione and Draco appeared, carrying plastic bags.

"That was a great day Choc," Draco commented as he dropped the plastic bags just beside the door. "The Green Day music book is fantastic too! I can finally play _'__Time __of __your __life__'__!__"_

"I'm glad you had a good day, hopefully though it'll get better..." Hermione smirked and Draco raised his eyebrow at her.

Suddenly there were shouts of "Surprise!" by everyone in the living room as they all cancelled their disillusionment charm. Draco was taken aback at first but then started to laugh and gave Hermione a big hug. "I should've known! I mean, Choc! Thank you!"

"You're welcome honey, I love you!" Hermione kissed him on the nose and then Neville suddenly spoke up.

"Happy Birthday Malfoy!" he shouted as he held up a bottle of beer and Luna suddenly wrapped her arms around him. "Luna! Baby!" he kissed her on the forehead and then started shouting. "Let's party!"

Draco raised his eyebrow again, this time at Neville in disbelief of his attitude.

"I guess Longbottom is having fun, and the party hasn't even started." Draco laughed at people suddenly started passing drinks around and people were shouting and dancing to the music that was playing loudly all around the apartment. "Wont the neighbours complain?"

"Draco, there's silencing charms all around the apartment, so we can be as loud as we want today," Hermione laughed and then pulled Draco deeper into the crowd of people that had started dancing.

The hours rolled on by for Draco and Hermione, dancing and partying. It wasn't until at least one in the morning the next day that all the visitors left, some were led home by Hermione due to them being really drunk, but a majority of people had been able to go home safely.

Draco closed the door as the last of the visitors left the apartment and gave a tired sigh. With a quick flick of his wand, the apartment started cleaning itself and he made his way to the kitchen where Hermione had just cast the necessary spells before the dishes started cleaning themselves.

"Long day huh Choc?" Draco asked as he pulled Hermione into a hug.

"Yes definitely," Hermione said as she cuddled closer to Draco. "I do however have one more present for you." She smiled and before Draco could ask or comment, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to their room. Once they were inside, Hermione had Draco sit on the edge of the bed while she went to close the door. Once the door was closed, she went to the bed and pulled out a box wrapped in light blue wrapping. Draco looked at Hermione questioningly and she motioned for him to open the present. He did and when he pulled out a small shoe no bigger than the palm of his hand, he looked up at her and gave her a confused look.

"I... I don't understand..."

"I'm pregnant... You're going to be a father."

**A/N-** One last chapter! Virtual cookies people! :D


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N-**This is the last chapter and I'm glad that I'm finally finished! This is probably the longest story I've written! :O I hope you enjoyed it and thank you for reading! I am now currently planning out another story, (Hermione/Voldemort) but if you have any requests for any couples I'd be glad to comply! :D (I'm mainly a Hermione shipper, so her with anyone really, but Ron... Not hating him but yeah...)

**Disclaimer-** Not me! . I'm not JK!

_**Chapter 18**_

It was Leo's second birthday and Draco, Hermione, Blaise, Pansy- who was carrying their two year old daughter Aurora Zambini, Harry, Ginny, Narcissa, Ron and Lavender were all celebrating the little boy's birthday at Hermione's apartment.

"Happy birthday Leo!" Ron cried out as he carried the baby in his arms and lifted him up and threw him into the air and caught him again.

"Ronald Weasley! You better be careful with Leo or I will personally castrate you!" Hermione shouted as she started to lay the big cake that she had baked herself onto the dining table. Draco stood next to Ron and was talking to Lavender about something that Hermione couldn't hear.

"You ever plan on asking her?" Lavender asked as she took a quick sip of her coke.

"Of course, I'm doing it soon don't worry." Draco assured her and took a sip from his own drink.

"I still don't understand why you didn't go and just ask her two years ago."

"Well...I actually don't get it myself but it's better late than never."

"I know..."

"Alright! Ron give him to me! It's time to blow his candles!" Hermione cried out to Ron, who quickly listened and handed Leo over to Hermione. "Draco come!" Draco quickly nodded at Lavender before standing next to Hermione and standing next to her, holding his son's hand as they sang happy birthday and blew the candles. "Happy Birthday Leo!"

Draco took the nice and started cutting slices of the cake and handing it around to everyone, and soon everyone had a piece.

"'Mione!" Ron shouted out between bites of his- slighter larger slices- of cake. "This is delicious!"

"Definitely, you've out done yourself this time Choc," Draco said in agreement and gave Hermione a quick kiss on the nose.

"Thank you Ronald, honey," Hermione said and nodded at them respectively.

"Just saying the truth," Ron commented and then went to get another piece of cake.

"Daddy!" Leo shouted from his high chair while holding a plastic spoon in one hand and then a small box in another. Draco turned around and smiled at his son without realising what his baby had in his hand.

"What is it son?" he asked and then suddenly his expression turned to shock when he saw the small box that Leo was carrying. He quickly patted down his pockets and then sighed in disbelief. His son was such a Slytherin. Part of him was proud of this, but then another part of him was annoyed, annoyed that his two year old child had just ruined the surprise.

"Draco..." Hermione said, trailing off as Draco carefully took the small box that their baby was holding. All noise suddenly disappeared- save for Leo's and Aurora's occasional laughing as Draco got down on one knee and held the small box. Tears started streaming down Hermione's face as she looked down at Draco, her hands covering her face as she held back her sobs.

"I had hoped for a better way to ask you, but since our son had other ideas... Hermione Jean Granger, I knew that on that day at the hospital when you gave me a chance to start living again that I wouldn't be able to live without you. I knew then that we were meant to be together and I guess I have only now just plucked up the courage to ask you this. But Hermione... Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?"

Hermione held back her sobs ever more and started nodding her head like mad. "Yes... Draco YES!" Draco stood up and rubbed the sweat off his forehead and Hermione suddenly jumped onto him, giving him kisses everywhere on his face, leaving one long passionate kiss on the lips for last. "I love you Draco Lucius Malfoy and I would be honoured to become your wife. I love you."

"I love you too Choc." They kissed each other again on the lips while Ron, Harry, Blaise and Lavender started cheering, and Ginny, Pansy and Narcissa started crying. Things were excellent...

**A/N-** It's over! I hope you liked it! Please review! (Virtual cookies for those that do!)


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